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600041767V 



31. 



800041767V 



3^■ 



A TOUR IN INDIA. 



VOLUME TBS SECOND. 



PEN AND PENCIL SKETCHES, 



DKINU 



THE JOURNAL 



OF 



A TOUR IN INDIA, 



BY 



CAPTAIN MUNDY, 

LATX 
jUDK-DJi-CAMV TO LORD COMUKKMKUK. 



IN TWO VOLUMES. 




VOL. II. 



LONDON: 
JOHN MURRAY, ALREMARLE-STREET. 



MDCCCXXXII. 



(^2S'^ 



LONDON: 

Printed by William GLOvxSf 

Stamford-street. 



CONTENTS 



OF 



VOLUME THE SECOND. 



Chapter I. 



Rohilcund— Amroah— Moradabad — Paisage of the Ram-Ounga^- 
Hampore-— FuttyguDge— BareiUy — Dougan't Hon^— Barra-Muttana'— 
Jellahabad — Falconry — ^Leftbankof Ganges — Futtyghur— The Hakim 
Hendei Sixth Local Uorie— Anecdotes of the Battle of SeUbuldree 

Pagg 1—37 

Chapter II. 



The Dooab — Falconry — Etawar — Budeapore — Scindia's territories— 
The Mahrattas — Bhind Oohud— Gwalior— -Scindia's camp— A sporting 
digression— Hog-hunting — ^TheTent CIub^An anecdote — Martial games 
-^A Mahratta feast — Mahratta entertainments — Antree 38 — 103 

Chapter III. 

Bundelcund — Datteah— Amaba— Jhansi — Burwah-Sauger — - Ourcha 
•jx-Faharee Banka— Kaitah — Ghirkari — Banda — Zoolficar f Ali — An 
hour's sport-^Kallinger — British siege of Kallinger — Shere Khan's 
liege — Last day in camp— DAk Journey — Allahabad — Kmbark on the 
(hmges — Voyage down the Ganges — Tlie budgorow — Minsapore — Chu- 
nar — ^The voyage — Benares — Sporting intelligence — Gazypore — Buxar 
— Dinapore — Deega Farm — Bankipore — Pntna — Monghir — Secta's 
WelL-^angiiira — Boglipore — Golgong — Sicrigully— RnjemAl — Suja's 
palace— Bogwangola-^Rivcr Pnbna — Dullaserry river — Borigimga river 
—Dacca— Ruins of Dacca— Nawaub Shums-Ood-Doulah— A day's sport 

104—108 



viii CONTENTS. 

Chapter IV. 

The voyage continued — ^The Burrampooter — ^Voyage towards Calcatta 
— Re-enter the Gauges— Quit the Ganges — A north-wester — Lal-Chittee- 
ka-Bazaar — Delta of the Gauges — Balllsore river — Enter the Sunder- 
bunds — Culna — ^The Cherruck Poojah — Scenery of the Sunderbunds — 
A sporting stroll — Calcutta — Leave Calcutta — Budge-Budge — Kedgeree 
— Sanger isle — Sea voyage to Pooree— Bay of Bengal — ^Return to Cal- 
cutta — Fresh departure for Pooree — Roop-Narain river — ^Tumlook — • 
Mid napore — Dak j ourney — Dantoon — Balasore — Barrepore — Cuttack-^ 
Night journey page 199—236 

Chapter V. 

Poore&Juggemauth — Fakirs — Sands of Pooree — ^Temples of Pooree— 
Surf-boats — Pastimes — Luxuries — Sports — A tiger-trap — ^Temple of Jug- 
gemauth — Pilgrims — Religious ceremony — ^The Rath-Jattra — ^The pil- 
grim tax — ^The Suttee — Hindoo funeral rites— Nocturnal bathing — ^Trip 
to the Black Pagoda — Sing Durwasu, or lion Gate—The iante-chamber 
—The Black Pagoda, or Temple of the Sun — ^Its origin — Return to 
Pooree — Journey to Calcutta — Cuttack—- The Oorios — Fort of Barabat — 
Gymnastics — Black penitents — The Rath-Jattra— Garden Reach— -A 
Pay in Calcutta— Andval of the Pallas 237—300 

Chapter VI. 

Voyage from Calcutta to England — Diamond Harbour— The Sand- 
Heads — Pallas at sea — ^The frigate — ^Madras — Government House — ^The 
Esplanade — ^Fort George — The natives — Re-embarkation — Pallas — A 
funeral at sea — Pallas off the Cape of Good Hope — False Bay — Simon's 
Bay — Simon's Town— Land in Africa — ^Drive to Cape Town — Fish- 
Hook's Bay — Half-way House — Table Bay — Cape Town — Lodging- 
hunting — The women — The Lion Hill — Cape horses — Cape living — 
Suburbs of Cape Town — Ride to Simon's ^Town — Constantia — Wine 
stores — ^Voyage to St. Helena — ^James's Bay— James Town — ^Planta- 
tion House— Ride round the island— Diana's Peak— Longwood— Napo- 
leon's tomb — Statistic account — Quit St. Helena — Pallas at sea — Isle of 
Ascension — George Town — Green Mountain — The Azores — English 
Channel— Spithead— Pallas at anchor— England 301—376 



SKETCHES IN INDIA. 



CHAPTER I. 
PROVINCE OF ROHILCUND. 

Dec. Ut. The Camp crossed the Ganges — 
the horses, camels, and equipqiges perform- 
ing the passage in boats, and the elephants 
swimming the stream. The ferry presented 
a glorious scene of bustle and confusion, 
the horses fighting, like tigers, in the boats, 
and even kicking each other into the water ; 
camels roaring and blubbering, and resisting 
every effort, soothing or forcible, of their ser- 
wftns to induce them to embark; and when 
some of these ungainly, though useful brutes 
were persuaded to emulate the fabled bear, 
they not unfrequently blundered in on one 

Vol.. II. B 



2 ROHILCUND. [Ch.I. 

side the boat, and out on the other into 
the river; where they stood answering with 
helpless bellowings the execrations of the 
serwAng aud ro^^uugees, who, equally helpless, 
quickly resorted to mutual recrimination, fol- 
lowed by a brisk fusillade of abuse, of which 
the fathers, mothers, and even collateral kin- 
dred of the principals were sure to come in 
for their full share. 

The trajet of the elephant, that * wisest of 
beasts,' is the most easily effected. The sage 
animal, on awving at the riyer «iide, is divq^ted 
of bip burthen, which is ftent aciHosa in the 
boatii J Qu a hint from the n^Qhout he steps 
into the stream an4 wades or 9wims& through 
the element which he dolighti in, and on th^ 
other bank again patiently reeeiveai bis load. 
In swimming, the elephant's trunk is alon^ 
aeen above water. The mohout directs his 
eQurse kneeling or standing on his back. 

Soon after our arrival in camp, a party of 
nine started with a line of sixteen elephants 
to try for a tiger ; but our endeavours were 
ccimpletely frustrated by tbe QXt^eiite thick- 



Ch,l\] AMROAH. S 

nes8 of the covert. We did not get sight of 
a tiger the whole day, although on several 
occasions the elephants showed by their un- 
easiness that we were close upon one, and we 
found their footmarks on the sand of every 
rivulet. We had, however, very tolerable 
sport with deer, wild*hogs, and black game. 

Two days afteri we encamped under the 
walls of the Mussulman town of Amroah, 
whichi though now in ruins, bears the appear- 
ance of having been formerly a large and 
populous city. The country in the immediate 
neighbourhood is spread out in wide tracts of 
cultivation, and extensive groves of fine trees; 
amongst which are scattered here and there 
the picturesque remnants of mosques and 
tombs, memorials of the once warlike and 
powerful Pat4ns. As we rode past the walls* 
amongst the numerous groups of the idle inhap- 
bitants, who assembled to gaze at the English 
cavalcade« I scarcely saw a single Hindoo. 
The gay raiment of the M ahommedan, with 
its various and flaunting colours, appears to 
great advantage over the plain white garb 

B 2 



4 ROHILGUND. [Ch. I. 

of the less showy disciple of Brahma^ more 
particularly in groups. The walls of Amroah 
and the road-side were dotted with little 
parties of these graceful blackguards, who 
stood, sat, and lounged in attitudes as natural 
to their supple forms and elegant drapery, 
as they are incompatible with the stiff jcJints 
and stiffer costume of English figures. Each 
group appeared as if it had been previously 
drilled by some posture-maker for a * tableau.' 
An experienced eye may readily distinguish 
indiyiduals of the two sects Mussulman and 
Hindoo, by a certain rakish, * devil may care' 
air in the former, strongly contrasting with 
the placid and orderly demeanour of the 
latter tribe. In some instances, however, 
where the dress and manners may have gra- 
dually assimilated, there is still preserved 
One characteristic mark — the vest of the 
Islamite is uniformly open on the left breast, 
and that of the Hindoo on the right. 

From Amroah two marches, through a 
pretty country abundantly provided with 
Bhady groves^ brought us to the town of 



Ch»I.] MORADABAD. 5 

Moradabad. It is a considerable place, and 
the streets and bazaars are better scavenged 
than most native towns are. The population 
is almost exclusively Mahommedan* The 
English cantonment, in which a native infan* 
try regiment is quartered, is prettily situated 
amid luxuriant trees, round an open parade* 
ground* The chief duty of the troops is the 
guard of the gaol, wherein there are incarce* 
rated no fewer than eighteen hundred native 
convicts. These are condemned to work, in 
chains, on the roads : but I fancy their la- 
bours do not extend much beyond the gravel 
walks of the magistrate's garden, for the roads 
through which we have jolted for the last 
three days seem perfect strangers to the 
spade and pickaxe. 

In the evening I strolled to see a house 
near the town which, many years ago, as I 
was informed, proved the city of refuge to 
the Europeans of this station. Mr. Leicester 
was collector of revenue at Moradabad, and 
at this isolated spot was only supported by 
five companies of Sepoys; when one night 



ftO&ItCUND. [CI1.L 

the cantonments were surprized by a sudden 
attack of some thousand Mahratta cavalry, 
headed by the famous Holkar, in person. 
Mr. L. threw himself, with his Sepoys, into 
this fortified house, which was fortunately 
provided with a deep ditch and a wall 
flanked with miniature bastions, and had just 
time to secure himself in his little strong- 
hold, when it was beset by the enemy. The 
garrison succeeded in keeping the besiegers 
at bay, until Holkar, hearing of the near 
approach of Lord Lake, who was in pursuit 
of him, was obliged to draw oflf his troops 
from the blockade. 

The following morning, Head-quarters 
pursuing its flying tour, passed the river 
Ram-Gunga, and encamped six miles from 
its left bank. This little stream proved quite 
a Berisina to our camp-followers ; though the 
scene of confusion on its banks was rather 
mirth-provoking than horror-striking. The 
only boat had been rendered useless by a 
camel having put its foot through the bottom. 



Oh. I.] PASSAGE OF THE) RAM-GUNOA. 7 

KuraiiaheeB and haokeries^^ full of women 
and baggage, were Bticking fast in the quick-* 
sands ; and many of them, capsized in the 
river, poured forth their contents, living or 
inanimate, into the water : whilst the ladies 
themselves— ^unused to play the naiad-— 
picked their way, with welKuplifted pyja- 
mas t» to terra firma, reviling in no very choice 
terms the gaucherie of their garree^wftns 
(charioteers)) which had exposed their well-* 
curtained charms to the vulgar gaze, and 
their silken dresses and tender limbs to 
the chilling stream^-- and on a December 
morning. 

I remained behind on my elephant to 
witness 'the fun/ and had the satisfaction 
of seeing my property, carried on the backs of 
camels— ^ell styled the * ships of the desert,' 
—accomplish the passage, high and dry; 
whilst sundry cart-loads of office records and 
other impedimenta were immersed in the 
deep. 

The portion of Rohilcund, through which 

* Native vehicles. •♦• Trouseri. 



8 BOHILCUND. [Ch,!, 

we .are now journeying, is watered by many 
streams, and much adorned by beautiful 
topes of mangos and other trees. These 
groves, so refreshing to the sun-worn traveUer, 
have been for the most part bequeathed to 
posterity by rich natives ; amongst whom it 
is, or was before our reign, the custom to 
leave behind them some monument of public 
utility, such as a tank, well, or grove ; — an 
inculcation of their religion, which, if it does 
not tend to benefit their own souls, is at least 
highly advantageous to the bodies of their 
descendants. The topes are usually planted 
in regular series of avenues, along the um- 
brageous alleys of which the camps of travel- 
lers in the hot season are erected. 

The next day we crossed the small river 
Kosila, and on the left bank encountered the 
Nawaub of Rampore, who came in state to 
welcome the Commander-in-chief to his do- 
minions. On meeting, this prince entered 
Lord Combermere's houdah, and, instead of 
the usual embraces, shook hands k I'Anglise. 



Ch.IO RAMPORE. 9 

He affects Anglicism in many other points, an 
assumption by no means rare among MussuU 
man potentates ; but the commixture of BrU 
tish and native manners seems as unnatural 
as the blending of oil and water : the ill-sus-* 
tained attempt at John Bullish cordiality soon 
sinks out of sight, and the frothy pomp of the 
Mahommedan floats again to the surface. 
His dress was a singular mixture of splendour 
and bad taste, consisting of a black velvet 
surtout, richly embroidered in gold — such as 
one might imagine Talleyrand to have worn 
at the Congress of Vienna — upon which he 
had stuck several rows of the Honourable 
Company's livery buttons, displaying the 
rampant lion upholding the crown. This 
chef d'ceuvre was, as he assured us, perpe- 
trated by an English tailor at Calcutta. His 
head was adorned by an unique-looking head« 
piece, in form something between a cap of 
maintenance and the pinnacle of a Chinese 
pagoda. Several carriages of British fashion 
and manufacture followed in the cavalcade; 
the most remarkable of which was a barouche 



drawn by a pair of young elephants, beaiiti^ 
ftdly caparisoned. His cab would have put 
to shame all its fellows in Hyde-park ; it was 
of the most approved architecture, and the 
hood was of black velvet, enriched with deep 
gold embroidery. 

The Nawaub of Rampore is a stout, vulgar- 
looking man, of middle stature, and deeply 
marked with the smallpox : he is an ardent 
sportsman, and is accounted the best ball- 
shot in India. He bears the character of 
a drunkard and spendthrift; and, owing to 
misrule and neglect of business, his kingdom, 
which if well managed should produce twenty 
lacs per annum, scarcely aflfords him a re* 
venue of one-fourth of that amount. 

In die evening Lord Combermere paid the 
usual compliment of returning the visit, when 
the ordinary ceremonies and entertainments 
were put in vogue. The audience-hall, where 
we were received, is of eastern architecture, 
but splendidly, though heterogeneously, fur* 
nished with mirrors, chandeliers, &c., from 
England. The presents which were offered 



€h.IO FUTTYOUNOE. 11 

at the close of the sederunt to his Excellency, 
were strictly characteristic of the Nawaub'a 
sporting reputation : a pair of powder-flasks 
formed of the tusks of the female elephant, 
richly carved ; a sylvan, pic-nic chair, made 
entirely of stags' antlers: an enormous ele- 
phant's tooth, about eight feet in length, and 
a stupendous pair of buffalo's horns. 

We only passed twenty-four hours at Ram- 
pore, and on the third day our camp was 
pitched near the village of Futtygunge, on 
the very plain where, some five-and-thirty 
years ago, a British army under General Aber- 
crombie gained a hard-earned victory over 
the Rohillas. It is related that at the com- 
mencement of this battle the scales of Jove 
long hung doubtful ; the enemy's cavalry even 
got into our rear, and cut to pieces six com- 
panies of infantry. Within eyeshot of the 
action we had some thirty-thousand native 
allies, in the troops of the Nawaub of Luck- 
now : but the Rohillas, being looked upon as 
the most determined fighters in India, these 



12 JIOMLCUND. [Ch-L 

crafty, cold-blooded auxiliaries did not hold 
it convenient to interfere in the ajSray, until 
one of the principals had achieved a decided 
superiority. Accordinigly^ they held aloof, 
uiitil the British, though sorely knocked about, 
had proved themselves the better men ; and 
then, like the fabled fox, they rushed in, and 
bore off the chief part of the spoil. As a 
counterpoise to this base act, however, they 
did the British the distinguished honour to 
change the name of the village, which beheld 
their exploits, from Beetora to Futtygunge, 
the * place of victory.' 

. In the evening I strolled out to visit the 
monument • raised by government in memory 
of those who fell. It is of obelisk form, and 
stands on a small mound, the only elevation 
in this vast plain, on which point of vantage 
the enemy's guns were ranged, and afterwards 
t^en. The names of fourteen British officers 
are recorded on the * storied stone ;V among 
whom were three commanding officers of regi- 
ments — a son of one of these now commands 
liOrd Combermere's infantry escort. I met 



Ch.LJ FUTTYOUNOE. 18 

him returning from his father's grave. With 
what intense interest must he have contem- 
plated the spot on which his sire^ a most 
intrepid soldier, distinguished himself, and 
perished ! This officer is described as having 
possessed uncommon personal strength : when 
surrounded by overwhelming numbers, he 
slew several of the enemy, until his treacher- 
ous sword shivered in his hand, and he fell 
covered with wounds. 

Within a stone's throw of this plain and 
simple monument rises the carved and mina- 
retted tomb of two illustrious Rohilla chiefs 
who fell in the action, bravely leading their 
cavalry to the charge. Our cavalry behaved 
infamously on the occasion : on the first onset 
of the enemy, Ramsay, who commanded them, 
turned his horse and fled with his troopers 
at his heels, leaving the flank of our line en 
Fair. To this base desertion may be attri- 
buted the great carnage which took place in 
our right wing; and here the dashing Rohilla 
chiefs ended their career in the midst of our 
broken ranks. Part of our runaway cavalry 



14 . BABEILLY, [CIlL 

5SrM rallied, and brought back to the field by 
two subalterft officers ; the recreant comman- 
der awaited not the judgment which would 
have OTertaken him, but fled to America. 

The editor of the ' Naval and Military Ma- 
gazine' mentions that this same officer was 
afterwards employed by Napoleon in the com^ 
missariat department. 

The next day Head*quarters arrived at 
Bareilly, a considerable town, and a civil and 
military station. On the road we were met 
by the Governor-general's Agent, Mr. Haw-* 
kins, who escorted the C!ommander-in-chief 
into camp. The town appears to be tolerably 
populous, and the bazaars present the pros- 
perous confusion and busy bustle of success- 
ful traffic. Bareilly is chiefly noted for the 
manufacture of house furniture, particularly 
chairs and tables, which, though painted and 
gilded very handsomely, are remarkably cheap. 
Chairs, highly ornamented, are sold for thirty- 
five rupees, or three pounds ten shillings a 
dosen. 



C^l) DQUQAM'f HQRSE. 15 

In the ftftamoon w© bad ft very pretty re* 
view of * Dougan's corpa of Irregular Horse/ 
The young and handsome commander, who 
had exchanged the scarlet and gold-stiffened 
mummy^oase of the A. D. C. for the graceful* 
easy^flowing Mussulman vest, was prevented 
by severe illness, from attending: nor did 
the youthful soldier, who had just attained 
the acme of his ambition**«the command of a 
cavalry corps^-ever spring into his saddle 
again. On visiting my friend, whose sick* 
ness was alleviated and his love of life aug* 
mented by the presence of a blooming bridOi 
I found the grim livery of death already im* 
pressed upon his handsome features. He 
spoke cheeringly and confidently of his reco- 
very ; and in a few weeks he was in the grave 
-^whither two others of my brother aides-de* 
camp had already preceded him. 

The regiment collectively did not perform 
so well as Skinner's Horse : individually, how* 
ever, the men were equally expert in the 
spear and matchlock exercise, and in feats of 
horsemanship. The AAJutant, Captain An* 



16 BAREILLY* [Ch.}. 

derson^ played for some time in front of the 
regiment with one of the native officers, a 
very expert spearman, and struck his man 
the three first blows, displaying the utmost 
equestrian skill and knowledge of his weapon* 
He rode with the strength of an Englishman, 
and the grace of an Indian. His Mussulman 
antagonist, as I was informed, was on one 
occasion brought into the arena of the Meerut 
riding-school, to try his powers with the best 
lance of his Majesty's Sixteenth Lancers; 
when the latter was obliged to confess that 
the Asiatic had him quite at his mercy, 
through the superior length and handiness of 
his spear ; and, he might have added, I sus- 
pect, the more perfect manege of his horse. 
This latter point of superiority is doubtless 
brought about by the severe though light bit, 
and the still lighter hand, with which the 
natives break and ride their horses. Unlike 
the ponderous English cavalry bit, it does not 
oppress and deaden the mouth when the rein 
is slackened; and the tenderest touch of it 
throws the steed much more inmiediately 



Ch.1.] * DOUGAN^S HORSE. 17 

upon his haunches than could be accom- 
plished by the massive piece of mechanism 
with which our horses are gagged. The soft, 
deep . saddle, too, and short stirrups of the 
Indiau are much more adapted to equestrian 
exploits than the narrow, slippery saddle and 
long seat of the English cavalier. 

The most difficult of the feats that f saw 
this day practised was the following. A tent- 
peg is driven by a mallet some eight or ten 
inches into the earth, so firmly that the 
strength of two men would not suffice to draw 
it out. The horseman, holding his spear re« 
versed in the rest, rides at full speed past the 
object, drives his weapon into the tough wood, 
drags it out of the earth, and brandishes 
it aloft, amid the cheering plaudits of the 
spectators. We have seen the cavalier suc- 
cessful; let us now follow the bungler s career: 
he places his spear in the rest, and comes 
thundering down direct upon the object; his 
horse swerves, he makes his coup, the peg 
stands scatheless, the ferule of the spear 
plunges deep in the earth, whilst the reverse 

Vol. II. C 



18 DOUOAN's HORSfi. [Ch. I. 

end strikes the ill-starred rider a violent blow 
on the back of the head, and brings him to 
the ground, amid shouts of laughter from the 
crowd. I should premise that this feat is per- 
formed with the butt of the spear, which is 
Airnished with a strong, sharp, steel ferule. 
The greatest adept at the exercise only suc- 
ceeded twice in five courses. 

When the regiment marched past the 
General, it was preceded, in place of a 
band) by a company of mounted singers, 
who chanted verses in a monotonous, but 
not unmusical key, accompanied solely by 
kettledrums. 

On the present occasion they sung to the 
praise of the Commander-in-chief, — no doubt 
delicately adverting to his Bhurtpore exploits 
—but the usual subjects of their strains are 
triumphant recapitulations of the warlike 
achievements of the regiment, and exhor- 
tations to future acts of glory — ^much after 
the fashion of Tyrtaeus, the great elegiac 
poel, who, by his spirit-stirring war-songs, 
spurred on the Lacedemonians to conquest. 



Cb.1.] BAREILLY. 10 

In the evening Mr. Hawkins entertained 
the Head-quarters party with a grand dinner, 
at which was displayed a magnificent service 
of plate, the same that was presented at the 
epoch of Lord Amherst's embassy^ by his 
Majesty of England to the Emperor of China; 
but which that cautious, self-sufficient poten- 
tate declined accepting. It was sold at auc- 
tion, and purchased by the present princely 
proprietor. Although profuse and prodigal 
in some points, Mr. H. has not, if report 
speaks true, altogether neglected to provide 
for his declining years : yet in spite of the 
handsome sum which rumour announces as 
the amount of his thrift, he does not, I be- 
lieve, meditate a return to his native land. 
Indeed it has always been a matter of marvel 
to me, how any man, after passing the best 
years of his existence in India,— accustoming 
himself to its splendid establishments and 
inert luxuries, and playing the despot among 
a crowd of fawning, cringing dependants,— 
can complacently settle down to a younger 
brother's mediocrity in !^)ngland, and school 

C2 



20 BAREILLY. [Ch. I. 

his disordered spleen to the constant aggres- 
sion which it must put up with from the in- 
dependent, liberty-and-equality bluntness of 
English servants, and the English lower 
orders in general, — not to mention the pro- 
bable dissolution, or at least relaxation of the 
ties which attached him to home, and the 
formation of new ones in the land of his pil- 
grimage. 

The next morning we rode to see Mr. Haw- 
kins's country-seat, called Cashmere, about 
five miles from his town residence. It is a 
pretty place surrounded by grounds which 
might easily be made very park-like : but 
the beauty of the whole is marred by the 
turf having been ploughed up, for the sake of 
a paltry crop of grain, under the very win- 
dows of the palace, — for such it may be styled. 
We did not view this Trianon of Bareilly 
under the most favourable auspices ; for we 
started in one of those well-nigh choking fogs, 
which are common to the cold-weather morn- 
ings, and had returned to camp long before 



Ch.I] FUTTYGUNGE. 21 

the sun had driven his misty antagonist from 
the face of nature. But this is only one of 
the many rambles in search of the picturesque 
that I have made in India during the cool 
season, in which my horse's * dew-besprent ' 
ears formed the utmost distance of the pro- 
spect. 

Having passed two pleasant days at Ba- 
reilly, we resumed our march towards Futty- 
ghur on the 13th. On the 14th and 15th we 
encamped at another Futtygunge, and at a 
village called Burra-Muttanah. The former 
place is, perhaps, the spot where, in the reign 
of Mr. Hastings, the Rohilla satrap Hafiz 
Rhamut lost his life and his country, in a 
game at soldiers with the combined forces of 
Oude and the Company. It is left for me to 
celebrate the latter place by the following 
encounter. On our journey this morning, an 
enormous wild boar crossed the line of march 
directly before the Commander-in-chief's 
horse, and struck into some fields of cotton 
ppd pther high crops. Snatching one of th^ 



22 BURRA-MUTTANA. [Ch. I. 

Hurkarahs halberts — a very inefficient wea^ 
pon by the bye — and followed by the two 
cavalry orderlies, I spurred after him, and 
was close at his heels when he dashed into a 
thick cate of sugar canes, inaccessible to 
horsemen. 

Some idle camp followers, being attracted 
to the spot, entered the cate to expel the 
animal by their shill outcries, whilst I posted 
myself, en vidette — ^like the Don waiting for 
the attack of the lion — at the further corner* 
I was in the act of speaking to one of the 
orderlies, when a sudden crash through the 
canes, and a savage grunt close to me, was 
followed by as sudden a rear from my horse, 
who entertained quite a Mahommedan anti- 
pathy to swine, dead or alive. The hog 
passed under his lifted fore legs, and in a 
trice I found myself sprawling on the earth 
with my little Arab rolling by my side, whilst 
my successful foe, satisfied with having made 
me * vider les arsons,' pursued his career, 
mercifully abstaining from bringing the com- 
bat * k I'outrance,' and leaving me to shake 



Ch.I.] JELLAHABAD. 83 

the dust from my person, and my spear at 
my retreating antagonist, with a muttered 
threat of retribution. Accordingly I had not 
been three hours in camp before, Meleager- 
like, I assembled three or four good spears to 
join in my crusade against the far-famed boar. 
We beat diligently but fruitlessly for some 
hours ; and I had time to digest the venom 
of my spleen during a ride of twelve miles. 
The crafty hog had, no doubt, saved his 
bacon by a forced march from the scene of 
his success. 

The following morning we passed under 
the walls of Jellahabad, a ruinous fortress of 
inconsiderable dimensions ; but surrounded 
by a lofty mud parapet, formidable bastions, 
and a deep fosse. It was built — as I was 
informed by a melancholy-looking old man, 
one of the few inhabitants — ^by Hafiz Khan, 
about seventy years ago— probably the same 
Rohilla chief whose death I have lately re* 
counted. Like most other small native forts 
in the British dominions, the fortification* 



i 



24 ROHILCUND. [Ch.I. 

have been allowed to become the prey of 
time ; the Company's monopoly of power in 
India precluding the necessity — which for- 
merly existed — of every petty town being 
furnished with defences against the sudden 
attacks of the numerous predatory hordes, 
which infested the country. A little beyond 
Jellahabad, we crossed the river Ramgunga, 
and encamped on its western bank. 

Dec. nth. Marched to the town of Imraut- 
pore, through a country spread for many 
surrounding leagues with one sheet of luxu- 
riant cultivation, interspersed with beautiful 
and ancient mango groves. In the rainy 
season, this rich and fruitful tract is scarcely 
habitable or passable ; the whole country be- 
tween the Ganges and Bareilly, exhibiting 
one vast lake of water. These inundations 
contribute greatly to fertilize the land. Dur- 
ing this moming*s journey, we diverged a 
good deal from the line of march, accom- 
panied by the Head-quarters falcon esta- 
blishment, {^nd en^oved ppwe more thaa 



Ch.I.] FALCONRY. 25 

usually good sport. With the long-wiuged, 
soaring bheiree, we had a best-speed gallop 
of four miles after a black curlew — a bird 
gives flights almost equal to the heron — and 
the bhauses, or short-winged, killed for us 
a couple of wild geese, some teal, and several 
partridges. This species of hawk does not 
soar, but darts from the wrist with the speed 
of lightning, and seldom fails to strike its 
quarry within two hundred yards — generally 
in a much shorter distance. We had also 
some amusing sport with another kind of 
falcon, of which, I believe, I have not made 
mention. It is a very small bird, perhaps 
barely so large as a thrush, and its prey is 
proportioned to its strength. It is flown at 
quails, sparrows, and others of the feathered 
tribe, of the like calibre. The mode of start- 
ing it is different from that used with any . 
other hawk. The falconer holds the little, 
well-drilled savage within the grasp of his 
hand, the head and tail protruding at either 
opening, and the plumage carefully smoothed 
4owp. When he arrive^ within twenty or 



86 FALCONHY, [Ch. I. 

thirty yards of the quarry, the sportsman 
throws his ba^wk much as he would a 
cricket-ball, in the direction of it. The 
little creature gains his wings in an instant, 
and strikes the game after the manner of 
the bhause. 

There is a queer tribe of gregarious little 
birds, common in India, which afford very 
laughable sport with the above-described 
hawk. They are usually found in a chatter- 
ing fluttering congress of ten or a dozen, at 
the foot of some baubul tree ; where the little 
busy-bodies are so absorbed in the subject 
under immediate agitation, that the falconer 
may approach within six paces of their noisy 
court of parliament, ere they entertain a 
thought of proroguing it. In the heat of the 
debate, down comes the little hawk (like 
some Cromwell) into the midst of the asto- 
nished assembly, and begins to lay about 
him right and left ; when strange to say, the 
whole tribe set uppi^ him, unguibus et rostris, 
and with a virulence of tongue as manifei^y 
vituperative, to a discerning ear, as if it were 



Cb.L] LEFT BANK OF GANGES. 27 

couched in words. In the dust of the con- 
test the sportsman runs upi and all the 
party take wing, except some two or three 
unfortunates, who, having caught a tartar> 
lie fluttering in the clutches of the feathered 
tyrant, 

The camp was pitched the next day on 
the left bank of the Ganges, opposite to the 
town of Futtyghur, which is situated about 
a mile from the other bank, and, with its 
numerous respectable buildings embosomed 
in fine groveSi presents a very handsome 
appearance. 

The march of intellect, which seems to 
occupy so much of the interest of the Eng- 
lish newspapers at this period, is evidently 
rapidly extending itself to these distant re- 
gions; as is, I think, happily illustrated by 
the following note which I have just received 
from a native of rank at Futtyghur. Few 
of his compatriots have hitherto reached that 
climax of civilization, an invitatory billet to 
dinner ; — 



28 FUTTYGHUR. [Ch.!. 

* Nawaub Moontezim ood Doulah requests 
the honour of Captain M.'s company to din- 
ner on, &c., to meet his Excellency the Com* 
mander-in-chief; 

The gentleman in question can, however, 
afford better proof than this trifling note of 
ceremony of his intellectual attainments, 
being accounted one of the most enlightened 
and liberal-minded natives in India. 

Dec. I9th. Early this morning, the holy 
Ganges once more received upon her glitter- 
ing bosom the five thousand members of the 
Head-quarters camp. On reaching the op- 
posite bank, we mounted our horses and sped 
into the town of Futtyghur, where a press- 
ing invitation to breakfast from the Nawaub 
Moontezim ood Doulah, alias Hakim Mendes, 
greeted our party. On the threshold of his 
palace, — ^which it is just a year since we 
crossed, on our journey northwards — the 
Commander-in-chief was received by the ve- 
nerable noble, with that dignified and gen- 
tl^manljr courtesy, for which well-born Mxi^t, 



Ch.I.] THE HAKIM M£ND£S. 29 

sulmans in general, and the Nawaub in par- 
ticular, are distinguished. His liouse I have 
already described as handsome in its archi- 
tecture and proportions ; but furnished in an 
inconsistent and heterogeneous fashion. The 
table was well served, and, on the removal 
of the cloth, numerous costly nick-nacks of 
French manufacture, such as coo-coo clocks, 
musical-boxes, &c. — for which the natives 
entertain a great passion — were displayed for 
the amusement of the company. 

The memoirs of our host would, I imagine, 
present a pretty fair delineation of the life of 
eastern courtiers in general ; except, indeed, 
that, by some lucky combination of circum- 
stances, or by the progress of intellect — which 
has taught men to respect the seat of intellect— 
the Hakim has been enabled, in his disgrace, 
to keep his head upon his shoulders. By his 
distinguished talents he raised himself to the 
Vizierate of Oude under Sadut Ali, which 
office he long held; but, as the tenure of 
ministers in the favour of their patrons is 
often ephemeral and insecure, he was sup- 



30 FUTTYGHUR. iChA, 

planted in the king's good will by a knave, 
and condemned to an honourable banishment 
as governor of some frontier province. In 
this appointment his abilities poured^ an in^ 
crease of revenue into the royal treasury; 
whilst, at the same time, his own cassettd 
waxed heavier ; and, when he finally took up 
his residence at Futtyghur, he was accounted 
a man of immense wealth. Of this he has 
devoted a considerable portion to sundry pub- 
lie benefactions, among which may be noted 
a handsome bridge, built for the English go- 
vernment at his own expense. 

Of the extent to which the Nawaub carries 
courtesy and good-breeding, the following 
anecdote affords fair proof. On the occa- 
sion of the marriage of a young relation, he 
gave a grand entertainment, to which the 
English of Futtyghur were invited. In 
the midst of the festival, a string of costly 
pearls— doubtless as big as plovers' eggs!— • 
worn by him as a necklace, broke, and the 
precious beads rolled on the floor among the 
crowd ; an accident of which the Hakim did 



Gh.I.] THE HAKIM MEKDfiS. SI 

not take the slightest notice until the break- 
ing up of the assembly^ remarking, that it 
was not worth while to disturb tlie harmony 
and hilarity of the party for so tritling a 
cause. 

Having here slightly sketched the bright 
side of the Nawaub's portrait, I leave to his 
future biographers the exposure of the reverse* 
In person the Hakim Mendes is tall and thin, 
and slightly bowed by age ; his complexion 
fair and pale, his features small, and their 
expression that of cunning veiled and neu- 
tralized by exceeding blandness. 

At the conclusion of the breakfast, the 
Nawaub conducted us to a veranda opening 
upon a grass-plot, where his stud of horses 
was paraded, consisting of a showy assem- 
blage from England, Persia, Arabia, Caubul, 
the Deccan, &c. 

Dec. 20M. A halt — review of the sixth Local 
Horse, a corps accoutred A la Mussulmane, 
and mustering about seven hundred men on 
parade. After going through some skir« 



32 SIXTH LOCAL HOItSE^ [Ch.L 

mishing manceuvres, the usual practice of the 
spear, sword, and matchlock was displayed. 
The most amusing part of the spectacle was 
the confusion of the crowds of spectators, who 
were suddenly put to the rout by the whiz- 
zing of the bullets, liberally and promiscuously 
expended by these wild cavaliers, without 
much ' solicitude as to their direction. The 
regiment is commanded by Major Fitzgerald, 
who obtained the appointment in reward of 
an act of intrepidity which, about eleven years 
since, saved the Europeans at Nagpore from 
a hempen catastrophe, a fate ordained them 
by the Rajah of Berah, who with a nume- 
rous army headed by fierce Arabs, had sur- 
rounded the handful of an English force near 
that place, with the resolution to exterminate 
them. 

The following account of the action I re- 
ceived from oral authority, and not from au- 
thenticated history ; should it be incorrect, 
therefore, in the details, let my informer pre- 
pare his broad shoulders for the onus. In- 
deed, many of the historical anecdotes inter- 



Ch.L] B'UTTYOHUtt^ 33 

spersed throughout this journal were gleaned 
— after the manner of an indolent, yet inqui* 
sitive traveller — ^more by asking questions 
than by consulting documents. Having thus 
turned king's evidence against myself as an 
author, I will proceed. 

The British force did not exceed two regi- 
ments of native infantry and four troops of 
native cavalry, the latter commanded by the 
then young Lieutenant Fitzgerald. Our men 
had bravely resisted for some time, but were 
falling fast from the repeated onsets of the 
overpowering enemy, and from the discharge 
of a numerous artillery, to answer which the 
English had only two guns (and even these 
shortly fell into the hands of the Mahrattas,) 
when Fitzgerald at length remarked to the 
commanding officer the utter hopelessness of 
standing still to be mowed down without the 
power of retaliation, and offered to try the 
effect of a charge with his four troops. The 
commandant refused to hear of it, and, on 
our hero persisting, declared, that if he car- 
ried his rash project into execution, it would 

Vol.. II. D 



34 ANECDOTES OF THE {Ch. I. 

be at his own peril in case of failure. In such 
an emergency, however, a court-martial would 
present few terrors even to the most buckram 
martinet : the gallant youth only exclaimed, 
• I accept the alternative ! ' and, after a few 
words of exhortation to his men, charged at 
the head of them through the centre of the 
enemy's thousands. 

The impetuosity and unexpectedness of the 
attack produced a momentary panic among 
the Mahrattas, who, opening out on all sides, 
left their artillery exposed. Fitzgerald saw 
his advantage, assaulted and overthrew, or put 
to flight the golundaze*, and, dismounting 
about forty of his men, turned the guns 
against the enemy. But for this exploit, their 
little party must have been quickly cut to 
pieces : for the Arabs, recovering from the 
shock, and becoming aware of their assail- 
ants' weakness, resumed the offensive, and 
had nearly surrounded the three troops, 
who were fighting desperately with their 
young commander at their head, when the 

♦ Gunners. 



Ch. I.] BATTLE OF g^TABULDREE. 3(^ 

latter suddenly ordered his m^n to disparsei 
^nd to re-*foFm behind the guns, whioh were 
still in possession of the fourth tpoop. This 
they aooomplishedi thfi Qnemy pressing so 
close on their heels, as to cut down their rear- 
most horsemen ; and » tremendous fire was 
immediately opened» which checked the ca<« 
reer of their pursuers, destroying those who 
pressed hardest on them, and spreading havoc 
among their crowded ranks. 3y these means 
the English retained their defensive posi- 
tion till night-fell { and in the morning a 
luoky discord, by no means uncommon in 
eastern armies, having arisen in the enemy's 
ranks, the two parties were thinking more of 
cutting each other's throats, than those of the 

Einglishf 

Another interesting iuQident wc^s related to 
me of a Lieutenant -'•^^, Fitzgerald's junior 
officer. He was described as a very power- 
ful young man, and an expert and dashing 
swordsman } and in the affray many of the 
adverse cavaliers had bit the dust under his 
puissant blade, Among the rest he dismissed 

D 2 



38 



CHAPTER II. 



ENTER THE DOOAB. 



The next morning Head-quarters was again 
en route towards Etawar, a town on the 
Jumna river, distant five marches from Fut- 
tyghur. The fertile province between the 
two great rivers is called the Dooab, a term 
synonymous with the Mesopotamia of the 
Greeks. Our first day's march, fourteen 
miles, brought us to the village of Jehan- 
gunge. The Nawaub sent his hunting leo- 
pards and a lynx to accompany us through 
a country abounding in antelopes; and our 
hawks were in high feather for the plentiful 
provision of game which we were rightly led 
to expect in this beautiful district. Of the 
latter sport we had this morning several good 
specimens; but, as I have already described 
the flights of the bheiree, bhause, and little 
hand-hawk, it only remains for me to sketch 
the peculiarities of the lugger, a bird of the 



Ch.II.] FALCONRY. 39 

long-winged order, whose exploits I witnessed 
for the first time to-day. 

A hare, scared from its form, crossed the 
line of march at full speed, and the falconers 
being at hand, a couple of the last-named 

birds were flown at her. The lugger, being a 
light hawk, has not sufficient power to stop 
the hare by one swoop, but, keeping just 
abore her, the two confederates alternately 
stoop and strike her, in such quick succes- 
sion, and with such force, that the timid 
animal, being frequently rolled over by the 
blow, becomes so alarmed and exhausted, that 
she soon lies helpless, and is taken by the 
attendants. In this instance the hare was 
brought-to after running about three hundred 
yards. The blow of the lugger, which is in- 
flicted by the heel-talon, must be very severe, 
as the back of the animal was deeply scored 
in several places, and stripped of its fiir. 

The wide-extending, lightly- fenced, and 
level champaign through which we are now 
marching, is particularly favourable to fal- 
conry : but the great numbers of old, forsaken 



40 THE DOOAB. [Ch. it 

wells, which are invisible to the rider until 
he is close upon them, render the sport dan- 
gerous, particularly to the really staunch fal- 
coner, whose eyes are too eagerly employed 
in following his bird among the clouds, to see 
and avoid the dangers that lie in wait for him 
on the earth. 

Between Futtyghur and Etawar my journal 
presents little more than a sporting diary ; a 
chronicle of damage done by our chetahs 
among the antelope race ; an obituary of he- 
rons, curlews, and others of the feathered 
tribe, who fell to the hawks. These I shall 
pretermit, as presenting little of novelty or 
variety ; and invite my reader, without fur- 
ther ceremony, to spend Christmas-day with 
me at Etawar, a place, by-the-bye, as little 
calculated for hilarious purposes as can well 
be imagined. This season of religious exul- 
tation and civil merry-making in England is 
in India so little marked by any external de- 
monstrations, that I am free to confess that mid- 
day was treading on the heels of morning ere 
I was reminded that the sacred anniversary 



Cli.n.l ETAWAR, 41 

had nearly half passed over me, by the distant 
sound of the well-known Christmas hymn, 
played by the native drummers and fifers of 
the escort, who were marching up the street 
of the camp, and, in return for their rub-a-dub 
version of the beautiful canticle, petitioning 
at each tent-door for Christmas- Awc^^Aee**, or 
Christmas-dojtf^. And here I afford my dis- 
cerning reader — if he chance to be a specu- 
lator on analogies of languages — a wide scope 
for his ingenuity. How much more satisfac- 
tory, because how infinitely more erudite, 
laboured and far-fetched, than the common- 
place method of deducing the word, is the 
derivation here presented ! Let him, there- 
fore, pursue his philological labours through 
the intricate yet evident relations which con- 
nect the two expressions ; with the consola- 
tory assurance, that his solution cannot be 
much more absurd than the theories of some 

* A gift.— It is strange enough, that Bishop Heber (whose inte* 
rating Journal I did not peruse until after my return to England) 
has also remarked and recorded the analogy between these two 
words. I shall take shelter, f^gm the charge of plagiarism) under 
the well-known apology of Mr. Puff. 



4t ETAWAR. [Ch.II. 

of hiB precursors, who have been at such 
pains to father some little innocent English 
words up()n Chaldee roots. Whilst he employs 
himself in tracing the importation of the east- 
ern word into Britain to the epoch of the 
Crusades, or to the confusion of tongues at 
Babel, if he pleases, I shall proceed to the 
hum-drum task of describing Etawar. 

The town is large and flourishing, and there 
still remain the ruins of an extensive fortress. 
The river Jumna nms within a couple of 
miles of its walls : the country in the vicinity 
is ploughed up in all directions into profound 
ravines, by the violence of the rains ; so that 
it is almost impossible for the English inha* 
bitantd to indulge in equestrian rambles—* 
their chief recreation in India— except on the 
roads, which are much raised, and deeply 
trenched on either hand. The cantonments 
of Etawar contain five companies of native 
infantry, which may be considered a sort of 
vidette force on the frontiers of the Mahratta. 

Dec. 26th. Crossed the Jumna by a bridge 



Ch.U.] BUDEAPORE. 43 

of boats prepared for ub, and encamped ten 
miles from its western bank, near the village 
of Budeapore. The first part of the road 
led through a labyrinth of steep and narrow 
ravines, which greatly retarded the progress of 
the baggage ; and on two occasions the whole ' 
line of march was brought to a stand-still by 
the breaking down of a baggage-cart, and the 
caprices of a restive camel. On clearing this 
intricate defile, we came upon the beautifully 
wooded and highly cultivated tract of country 
occupying the narrow interval between the 
rivers Jumna and Chumbul ; the grain produce 
of which is consumed by the troops of Scindia. 
The camp was, owing to the delay of the ma- 
teriel among the ravines, obliged to halt the 
next day ; and we amused ourselves in hawk*- 
ing the peafowl which abound in the Arrhye 
Gates. The bhause is used in this sport, 
and the young peachioks, at which they are 
usually flown, are, on the table, no bad repre^ 
sentatives of the pheasant. 

The following morning. Head-quarters 



44 SCINDIa's TERRITORIES. £Ch.II. 

crossed by a bridge of boats, constructed for 
the occasion, the picturesque river Chumbul, 
which divides the British and Mahratta ter- 
ritories ; and by sunrise we found ourselves 
in the dominions of Scindia. It was with 
feelings of much-excited interest, and well- 
sharpened curiosity, that I prepared myself 
to make acquaintance with this extraordinary 
race of people, who have played so great a 
part in the modern history of India — ^this 
horde of military mushrooms, — which, like 
the destructive tare, took root in an obscure 
corner of the vast field of Hindostan, grar 
dually extended its shoots, and finally spread 
its baleful sway oyer the greater part of the 
immense Continent. The rise and progress 
of the Mahratta power appear like a judg- 
ment from Heaven, inflicted upon the tyran- 
nies and enormities of the established despots 
of the country. In the words of a late la- 
mented soldier and statesman, ' the Mahratta 
government has, fi-om its foundation, been the 
most destructive that ever existed in India. 
It never relinquished the predatory spirit of 



its founder Sivagee. Tliat spirit grew with 
its power; and when its empire extended 
from the Ganges to the Cavary, this nation 
was little better than an imperial horde of 
thieves. All other Hindoo States took pride 
in the improvement of the country, and in 
the construction of pagodas, tanks, canals, 
and other public works. The M ahrattas have 
done nothing of this kind — their work has 
been chiefly desolation — they did not seek 
their revenue in the improvement of the coun- 
try, but in the exaction of the established 
chout from their neighbours, and in predatory 
excursions to levy more.' 

The strongest acknowledgment of the ta^ 
lents and character of Sivagee was paid to 
him by the great Aurungzebe, in whose reign 
he died, and to whose schemes of universal 
conquest he had opposed an obstinate and 
unceasing barrier. On hearing of the Mah- 
ratta founder's death, the Emperor exclaimed, 
* That man must, indeed, be a great general, 
vho had the magnanimity to raise a new 
kingdom, whilst I have been labouring to 



40 SCINDIA's TBERITOIilES. [Ch. Ih 

destroy all the anci^iit sovereignties of ladia; 
my armies have been employed against him 
for nineteen years, find nevertheless his State 
h?is always jbeen increasing.' After Aynmg^ 
a^ebe's death, the Mahrattas, profiting by the 
civil struggles of his sons for the successions 
greatly extended their power, and even ya* 
vaged Pelhi itself. 

After being a thorn in the side of every 
native State, that turbulent race became a 
worm in the budding power of the Company. 
But that, which the crafty generalship and 
countless resources of Aurungzebe had failed 
to achieve against the unassisted Mahrattas, 
was at length accomplished by the valour of 
the English ; and the Mahratta armies, sup-^ 
ported by the talents and discipline of the 
French, were, after a long and obstinate 
struggle, crushed by the instrumentality of 
that genius, which was destined at a later 
period to humble the pride of their European 
allies, even on their own soil, 

The death-blow to the Mahrattas' indepen- 
dence as a nation was struck when they 



Ch.II.] THE MAHRATTAS. 47 

received a BritiBh Bubaidiary force at their 
courts. The faith of a Mahratta ift about 
equivalent to the Punica fides of yore. No 
treaty is with them inviolate. These sacred 
compacts are known, proh pudorl to have 
been broken by more civilized nations ; but 
some sophistry is always attempted in ex«> 
cuse by the rupturer. The Mahratta, on the 
contrary, openly glories in his ill faith, con* 
ceiving any scheme to overreach an enemy 
excusable, and even praiseworthy. 

The constitutioQ of this singular Govern* 
ment, in its days of prosperity, has been 
aptly compared to the Germanic empire. It 
was composed of two great principalities, 
under Scindia and Holkar,-«-*the progenitors 
of the present incumbents -^^ the component 
part3 preserving their connexion under the 
Peishwar, as one common supreme head. 
The territories of Scindia are considerably 
more extensive than those of his confederate. 

Proceed we.-^On the western bank of the 
Chumbul we encountered Major Fielding, — 
Assistant Resident at the Court of Scindia,-**- 



48 I^CINDIA^S TERRITORIES. [CluII. 

who was accompanied by several Chiefs of 
note, amongst others the Commander-in-chief 
of the cavalry, and the Minister for Foreign 
Affairs. They brought with them an escort 
of a thousand horse ; and a more ragamuffin 
crew dignified with the name of soldiers, I 
never beheld. That their equipments are 
mean and ill kept, and their doublets ' not 
over new,' is, however, not a matter of asto- 
nishment; since it is well known that the 
troops frequently go for years without receiv- 
ing a fraction of pay. 

Every second or third year they mutiny ; 
and Scindia pays them up, after deducting 
about two-thirds of their allowance, for the 
expense of keeping their accounts; paper, 
ink, scribes, &c., — a strong exemplification 
of Mahratta discipline and Mahratta good 
faith. At first sight it appears strange that 
soldiers should continue in a service, in 
which they do not get their dues. They, 
nevertheless, prefer it infinitely to ours, and 
for obvious reasons. English discipline is 
severe ; theirs is lax in the extreme : our 



Ch.n.] ^THE MAHRATTA.^. 49 

sepoys, though they receive handsome and 
regularly paid wages, get nothing beyond the 
fixed stipend : whereas the M ahratta troops, 
in default of pay, may seize by force what- 
ever they covet from the defenceless ryot, 
without fear of retribution. Major Fielding 
informs us that our visit to the country has 
proved an angel's visit to the army, who 
seized upon this opportunity to make one of 
their periodical exactions of their dues, and 
positively refused in a body to turn out on 
the important occasion of the British Com- 
mander-in-chief's arrival at the Court, until 
their arrears were paid up. The Maha Rajah 
was thus constrained to draw from his unwil- 
ling treasury no less than five lacs of rupees 
for this purpose. 

The personal appearance of the Mahrattas 
is mean and unprepossessing. They have 
neither the fair stature and noble bearing of 
the Mussulman, nor the delicacy of feature, 
and elegance of figure of the southern Hin- 
doo ; and they appear to greater disadvantage 
in our eyes, that we have just left the territo- 

VoL. II. R 



50 SCINDIA's TERRITORIES. [Ch. XI. 

ries of two of the finest races of people in 
India, the Seikhs and the Rohillas. Their 
acknowledged character as brave and skilful 
soldiers, however, amply makas amends for 
th^ir personal de^cieaciejs, 

The chief weapon of the Mahratta is the 
spear, which is formed of the male bamboo, 
^nd from twelve to eighteen feet long. He 
is also skilful in the use of the matchlock. 
The troops are for the most part mounted on 
mares, which^ although like the cossack'3 
horse, lauky and ill-fed, are like him, capable 
of going through a great deal of work. 

Pursuing pur march, we crossed another 
sm^U river, a^d found the camp pitched on 
an extensive sand bank, enclosed by two 
arms of the stream, and surrounded by deep 
ravines. The red and white striped tents of 
the Mahratta party were spread out on the 
further banks ; and in a few minutes after our 
arrival, their wild.looking steeds were pic- 
queted around them, their long lances stand- 
ing in upright clumps in the ground, and 
every man, with a diligence worthy of a Ger- 



Ch.IJ.] BHIND. OOHUD. 51 

man hussar, preparing forage for his horse or 
himself. In the afternoon the two ministers 
of Scindia visited his Excellency, and pre- 
sented to him about forty chiefs of the coun- 
try, a rough, uncourtly crew, * wearing a 
swashing and a martial outside,^ and armed 
to the teeth with divers-shaped daggers, 
shields, and immeasurable swords. As they 
severally approached to present their nuzzar, 
they swaggered up with a rakehelly noncha-* 
lance of manner, most of which was perhaps 
assumed for the occasion : one fellow, when 
asked by an officer of the Staff, if he under- 
stood Persian, surlily answered, ^ We are 
soldiers, like yourselves, and understand little 
else but fighting.' 

Two marches brought us to a ruined for- 
tress of some strength called Bland ; and two 
more to tlie fortified town of Gohud, where 
the Commander-in-chief's approach was 
greeted by an ill-fired salute from the rusty 
guns of the town wall, and the bastipns gf 
the citadel. It is held by t^ Killardar £or 

E 2 



52 SCINDIA's TERRITORIES. [Ch. II. 

Scindia*. The outer ciirtaia, which is of 
mud faced with stone, encloses a vast en- 
ceinte; and between it and the lofty com- 
manding citadel, there are two other walls. 
The whole place has a melancholy air of ruin 
and desolation, though there are some few 
good modem houses, particularly that of the 
governor. The country round about is barren 
and stony, and in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of the town there are several rocky 
elevations covered with stunted wood. The 
contrast between this desert and the richly 
cultivated plains of the fertile Dooab is com- 
mensurate with that which exists between 
the two governments presiding over them. 
During the Mahratta war, Gohud, strong as 
it appears, fell an easy prey to our armies : 
a fact which was ascribed to the insuflS- 
ciency of the garrison to defend so large 
an extent of wall. We lost two officers in 
the storm. 

* The territory of Gohud and the fort of Gwalior were given up 
to Scindia by the Company, in 1805. 



Ch.IL] OOHUD. 53 

Jan. Ut.f therm. a.m., 40^ The first buu 
of 1829 broke with difficulty through a black 
bank of clouds, which seemed to rest heavily 
on the eastern horizon ; and we had scarcely 
cleared the camp ere we were overtaken by a 
violent shower of hail and rain. Satisfied 
with having presented us with a gratuitous 
bath, by way of new-year's gift, the congrega- 
tion of vapours suddenly dissolved itself, and 
in an hour the firmament presented one ca- 
nopy of untainted blue. As we passed under 
the walls of Gohud, the Commander-in-chief 
received a P.P.C. salute from the citadel, and 
of so dribbling and unconnected a nature, 
that we felt satisfied that most of the old 
rusty guns, ' unaccustomed to public speak- 
ing,' had burst in the operation. 

We found the camp near the fortified vil- 
lage of Behaderpore. This stronghold is of 
small extent but very lofty, and one of its 
Hanks overhangs a rapid stream, which has 
so undermined its foundations, that the recur- 
rence of a few more rainy seasons must inevi- 



tably bring it down. 



84: scindia's territories. [cb. ii. 

Whilst wandering near the village in the 
ferening, I discovered among the thickets an 
old tomb, evidently not of eastern form ; and, 
otit examining it, found by an inscription that 
it had been erected to the memory of a com- 
patriot, a Captain Hicks, who met his death 
in 1781 ; but whether he fell in battle, or 
died ingloriously, was not recorded. 

The next raairch brought us to the hamlet 
of Jenaira, five miles from Gwalior, where 
Seiridia court is at present held. Our camp 
#as sitiiated in the Rumnah, or royal pre- 
served park, which swarms with antelopes, 
defer, and other game. The sportsmen of the 
party were already, in anticipation, spreading 
havoc among them, when two shikkarees 
came into cairip, arid represented that it 
#as the Maha Rajah's wish that the preserve 
should be respected ; a proclamation which 
was immediately enforced by a catop order. 
It afterwards proved that this uncourteous 
game-decree had originated in a mistake. The 
surrounding country, as far as the eye can 
range, is dotted over with small hills, which, 



Oh/ II.] GWAIilOK. 55 

Unconnected by any chain of heights, statt 
abruptly and independently out of the level 
plain. In our front, five miles distant, and 
situated on one of these isolated eminen(!es, 
three or four hundred feet above the plftin, 
stands the formidable fortress of Owalior, 
uncommanded by any cither elevation IfTithin 
gunshot. The flanks of the rock appeaf to 
be escarped on all dides ; the summit per- 
fectly flat and crowded with lofty buildings, 
whose minareted outline is now strongly and 
beautifully relieved against the red sky df 
sunset. 

In the evening the Comtiiander- in -thief 
held a durbar for the reception of the Prince 
Hindoo Rao, the nearest male relative of the 
Bye Sahib, or Queen Regent of the empire, 
during the minority of the Maha Rajahs His 
approach was first announced by breathless 
hUrkaras armed with spears, and soon con- 
firmed by the distant jingling of bells, dnd the 
dissonant strains of trumpets and shawms ; 
and finally by the glittering of the long 
lances of his escort, consisting of a thousand 



56 SCINDIA's TERRITORIES. [Ch. II. 

cavaliers, and thirty chieftains of rank. His 
Highness's mode of travelling was quite new 
to us, and smacked more of the hardy warrior 
than the luxurious eastern magnate. 

In place of the usual silver-plated houdah, 
half-filled with soft cushions, his monstrous 
and beautiful elephant was provided with a 
kind of double saddle elevated high above 
his back, and ornamented with costly hous- 
ings. The prince rode astride on the front 
part of the saddle, with his feet in silver stir- 
rups, and guided the animal with a long silver 
ancoos, whilst the rearmost seat was occupied 
in like manner by a favourite attendant, clad 
in complete armour. 

In front of the durbar tent, Hindoo Rao 
descended from his elephant into a state 
palankeen, in which he was carried to the 
Shemiana or entrance canopy. 

Here, contrary to the etiquette of other 
native courts, he waited until all the Sur- 
dars had been presented to his lordship, 
after which he was himself introduced by 
the cpmmaudant of cavalrJ^ The whole 



Ch.II.] OWALIOR. 67 

party then entered the great tent, and sat 
around* 

Hindoo Rao is a short stout man, with a 
countenance indicative of coura^ and even 
ferocity. His manner towards the British 
Cliief was cool, haughty, and provokingly in- 
different. Among his own people I was not 
surprized to hear that he bears the character 
of a vain, overbearing prince, and to his im- 
mediate dependants, a cruel tyrannical mas- 
ter. His attire presented an affected mixture 
of magnificence and slovenliness : he wore a 
red muslin turban put on puppyishly over one 
ear^ and fastened, after the usual Mahmtta 
fashion, under the chin with a silk scarf of 
green and silver. Round his waist was a sash 
of yellow silk^ through which was thrust a 
long straight sword with a yellow velvet scab- 
bard, and an equally long sword-knot of green 
silk fringed with silver. Massive gold brace- 
lets and amulets were clasped round his arms, 
and a necklace of about forty strings of yellow 
beads adorned his thick muscular throat. 
Yet under all these showy paraphernalia-^ 



56 SCINDIA's TErRRITORIES. [Ch. D. 

instead of the glitterifag keemeab dress 
worn by the rest of the chiefs — appeared 
a plain, coarse white cotton tunic ; which, 
with an eridently affected contempt for the 
cold^ was left unfastened at the neck^ expos- 
ing the #hole of his btoad brown breast tb 
the sight 

After the customary circulation of attar 
and pauil, Hindoo Rao took his departure, 
without much abatement of his sulkiness. 
His spleen had been, perhaps, a good deal 
stirred up by his lordship's refusal to accede 
to the wishes expressed by the Regent^ that 
he and his suite should appear bare-footed in 
the august preseiice of the schoolboy Rajah. 
This point of etiquette was waived after some 
altercation^ and we are to go to Court, like 
sbldiers^ booted and spurred. 

Jart. 3rd. At i^unrise we all mounted our 
elephants^ and the prince having joined the 
procession, we started for the British Resi- 
dency. Our group of elephants, escort, and 
guards were during the whole march com- 



CIlII.] OtfAtilOIt. 60 

pletely dQFroutided aftd hemmed in hy the 
swarms of horsemen, fortning the suite of His 
HJghiifeSS. They marched totally \frithout 
ofrder, and might be seen in straggling par- 
ties caracoling and circling their well-broke 
horsed, as far as the eye could reach. The 
plain looked like a Birnam wood of spears! 
It ifiras impossible to avoid feeling at that md- 
tneni, how completely we were at the mercy 
of A people who only a few years back werfe 
considered the most lawless and unprincipled 
marauders in India ; and \^ho must tip to this 
period cordially hate the sight of those white 
fafctes and red coats^ which put an end to their 
devastating pitecifes, slnd t'educed them to a 
state of coftipdt'ative dependence. 

A heavy fog Unfortunately came on tti^ we 
passed tinder one extremity of the frowning 
fbrttess ; and we were only enabled to cateh 
glimpses of its perpendicular flanks at inter- 
vals. The rock oti which it stands appears 
to be in length about one mile and a half, 
rthd varying from half to a quarter of a mile 
across. Its appearance, as it loomed through 



60 SCINDIA's territories. [Ch.II. 

the misty was not unaptly likened to the hull 
of a huge man-of-war. 

The town, for it has gradually grown into 
one, though it still retains the name of ' Scin- 
dia's Camp,' is spread around the base of the 
rock-fortress, and seems to cling to its gaunt 
parent's feet, as if for protection. Our camp 
was pitched near the British Residency, about 
four miles from Gwalior ; the house is badly 
situated among bleak, barren hills, with a 
forbidding prospect of arid plains studded with 
rocks ; but its interior is extensive and com- 
fortable ; and comfortable, indeed, ought the 
residence to be of that English minister, who, 
with half a dozen of his compatriots, is exiled 
to a spot so little favoured of heaven, and 
amongst a people so barbarous and unrefined. 

At half-past two, his Excellency, accompa- 
nied by the whole Staff, en grand costume, 
proceeded to pay a visit of ceremony to the 
young M aha Rajah. We were all mounted on 
elephants, and preceded by the cavalry escort. 
The road, for four miles, was lined by the 
Mahratta troops at extended order ; and they 



Cli. II.] OWALIOU. 01 

were, for the most part, well mounted and 
armed. The men appear to have no particu- 
lar uniform, but the most usual costume is a 
jacket of thickly-quilted cotton, which is proof 
against sword cuts, though it is penetrable by 
the spear or bullet. Some few of the officers 
saluted the Commander-in-chief, but the 
horsemen scowled sulkily at us as the caval- 
cade passed, and showed no mark of cour- 
tesy or respect. About halfway between our 
camp and the fort the Resident caused our 
party to halt ; as Hiat spot had been diplo- 
matically calculated to be the exact distance 
which the Maha Uajah, in consideration of 
Lord Combermere's rank as Commander-in- 
chief and Member of Council, should advance 
to meet us. His Majesty — doubtless pur- 
posely — kept us waiting for half an hour; and 
when at length he did make his appearance, 
there was so much preliminary conversation, 
so much court by-play between the British 
Resident and the Mahratta M. C, who were, 
perhaps, employed in exacting and refusing, de 
part et d'autre, some paltry point of etiquette. 



62 SCINDIA's TERRITORIES. [Ch. IL 

that the sun, disgusted with the farce, went 
down without witnessing the pFesentation. 

The scene was, however, even tP us M'^hp 
had seen so much of eastern courts, novel 
and interesting ; the (ceremony striking, and 
the locale very favourable for display. The 
interview between the two chiefs tpok place 
on a pretty extensive plain, h^f surrounded 
by a crescent of heights, the view being snd- 
denly terminated by the craggy and sombre 
fortress of Gwalior. This plain was com- 
pletely covered by the cavalcade of the Mah- 
ratta sovereign, whose glittering spears and 
floating pennons we could distinguish even as 
far as the foot of the rock ; and each eleva- 
tion of ground was thickly thronged with 
spectators. Every invention of barbaric pomp 
was lavished on the elephants and equipages 
of the Rajah's immediate suite. The ele- 
phant of the Himioo Rao, in particular, was 
the most beautiful animal I ever saw, and 
caparisoned in the most costly style; the 
whole of his head and trunk was painted in 
the richest colours ; he wore a deep frontlet 



Ch.ll.] GWALIOR. 03 

of solid silver network, and carh of liis linge 
tusks wiis fitted into a sheatli of silver riclily 
embossed; massive silver chains encircled his 
legs (which were about circumfcrent with a 
forty-years' oak-tree) ; large and sonorous 
bells of the same metal depended from his 
sides ; his ears were decorated with silver ear- 
rings about six feet long ; and liis liousings, 
the fringe of wliich reached nearly to the 
ground, were of velvet, embroidered in gold 
and silver. And here I should remark, that 
tlie Mahratta elephants — at least those who 
are merely used for the Suwarree — have a 
style of gait and nniintien peculiar to them- 
selves, and are as superior in appearance 
to ourSy as the English thorough-bred racer 
is to the earth-stopper's hack. The Com- 
pany's elephants, j)robably from having b(jen 
rode too young, and oj)pressed with burthens, 
shuffle along with short st(*.ps, tlunr lu^cks 
bent, and their heads hanging with the melan- 
choly air of an Oxford-street hackney-coach- 
horse. The Mahratta ele[>hant strid(»s majes- 
tically along, his head elevated far above his 



64 SCINDIA's territories. [Ch. 11. 

shoulder, and his tusks standing out horizon- 
tally. The chiefs pride themselves greatly 
upon these animals, and take pleasure in 
teaching them a variety of tricks. As the 
procession passed one of the courtiers, who 
was riding or driving his own beautiful little 
elephant, he made it kneel down and salaam 
with its trunk, and then follow the caval- 
cade, still on its knees, for about one hundred 
yards. 

As soon as Scindia had arrived within one 
hundred paces of our party, he drew up his 
elephant; and after the master of the cere- 
monies had passed and repassed — (and tres- 
passed upon our patience) — about twenty 
times between the two great powers, a space 
was cleared from the curious Mahratta mobi- 
lity, who seem to be endowed with the same 
propensity for staring and gaping as other 
mobs. The two parties descended simulta- 
neously from their houdahs, and confronted 
each other, more like bitter enemies prepar- 
ing to come to blows^ than as friends meeting 
in amity and concord. The old Commandant, 



Ch.II.) OWALIOR. 66 

— ^with his triangular, knave-of-spades face — 
then came forward, and, with the Resident, 
led the officers of the Staff up by twos, to 
be presented to the Maha Rajah, who — no 
doubt well schooled beforehand — coolly and 
indifferently returned our salaams. Maha 
Rajah Mookub Rao Scindia, — the descendant 
of the Peishwa's slipper-bearer — is about 
twelve years old ; and, for a Mahratta, a well- 
grown, good-looking boy, though of unusually 
dark complexion. He wore a dress of quilted 
crimson silk, with pyjamas of gold keemcab, 
and a plain crimson turban ornamented with 
a diamond aigrette ; pearls, emeralds, and 
diamonds being profusely disposed over his 
whole person. As soon as the English Staff 
had undergone presentation, the Mahratta 
courtiers were, to the number of forty, intro- 
duced in like manner to the British Chief : 
some of them were very richly accoutred, 
and others, on the contrary, most shabbily 
and even squalidly attired. There was one 
ragged lord, in particular, whom, by his 

Vot. II. »?• 



66 THE MAHRATTAS. [Ch. II. 

greasy cotton jacket and unreaped chin, I had 
mistaken for one of the low-bom multitude ; 
and under that impression, when he crushed his 
way and his fat person, not * perfumed like a 
milliner,' before me, and thrust his long sword 
over his shoulder into my face, I struck his 
toledo up, and pushed him back with my 
elbow. He looked ten thousand daggers, and 
twisted his long moustachios most savagely ; 
and I was not aware that I had underrated 
his dignity, until I saw my friend ushered up 
in his turn among the nobles, to receive the 
embraces of his Excellency. The accoUade 
fraternelle between his Lordship and the boy- 
King next took place ; after which ceremony 
we all remounted our elephants, and having 
given his Majesty a quarter of an hour's start, 
in order to allow of his reaching the palace 
before uSj we followed him to the * Mahratta 
Camp.' The amphitheatre of hills around us 
was crowded with moving masses of specta- 
tors, whose persons all bowed to the ground 
as the little despot passed. A body of about 



Ch^iL] scindia's camp. 67 

thirty camel-artillery* separated the two 
cavalcades^ and kept up a tremendous fire, 
k discretion. 

On passing a narrow defile in the chain of 
hills, we suddenly came in view of * the Mah- 
ratta Camp,' stretched below us in a tolerably 
fertile and well -wooded valley, and bearing 
about as much the appearance of a camp, 
as do the Pavilion and Steyne of Brighton. 
In place of tents, handsome snow-white mina- 
rets, temples, and palaces peep from among 
the neem-trees in every direction ; and we 
very soon found ourselves in a street as long, 
and nearly as well provided with shops as 
the Chandee Chowk of Delhi. At the en- 
trance of the royal palace — a fine white build- 
ing with red purdars to the windows — Lord 



♦ The gun revolves on a swivel fixed on the pummel of the 
Saddle ; and the bombardier, sitting astride behind it, loads and fires 
with wonderful quickness. During; the latter operation the i>oor 
camel's head seems to be in imminent jeopardy. The animals 
move along at a swinging trot, following each other with long 
outstretched necks, like a fiock of wild-geese : at a word they halt» 
fire a broadside, and jog off again at the rate of fifteen miles an 
hour. 

F 2 



66 THE MAHRATTA8. [Ch. II. 

Combermere xeceived a salute from the 
cavalry and infantry body-guard, who were 
drawn up on either side the court, accoutred 
and clothed in imitation of the Company's 
aiiny. The * present arms ' of the infantry, 
however, was not quite in strict accordance 
with * Torrens ;' for at the third motion every 
man raised his right hand to his cap. The 
horse-guards are beautifully mounted : in 
their ranks, as I was informed, there are a 
considerable number of troopers, who were 
formerly in the Honourable Company's ser- 
vice, and who broke up in a body from the 
fourth cavalry, in a fit of discontent. 

Dismounting from our elephants, and enter- 
ing the palace, we were piloted through nu- 
merous dark alleys, and stumbled up sundry 
blind staircases, ere we reached the hall of 
audience, which was, in fact, nothing more 
than a long veranda. The floor was carpeted 
with white cotton, so thickly quilted that we 
sunk up to our ankles as we walked ; and to 
this stuffing we were subsequently much be- 
holden, as there was not such a quadruped as 



Ch.ii.) scikdia's camp. . 60 

a chair in the Mahratta camp ; and during 
the audience, which lasted a full hour, we 
were obliged to sit cross-legged, like Turks 
or tailors, on saddle-cloths spread on the floor, 
the characteristic seat of the warlike Mah- 
ratta, to whom the unsheltered and unfur- 
nished bivouac is a natural home. In sitting, 
the great point to be observed was the keep- 
ing the soles of the feet out of sight, an article 
of etiquette which the native chiefs easily 
accomplished by sitting on their heels, with 
their knees resting on the ground ; but this 
. posture I found, after several fruitless (I was 
going to say bootless) experiments^ totally 
incompatible with our armed heels. We 
therefore squatted, each after his own fashion : 
nor do I think any novelty of attitude was 
struck out which was likely to be adopted by 
the natives, who did not disguise their amuse- 
ment at the unpliable rigidity of British limbs ; 
the uneasy contortions of which they were in 
a good situation to witness, as we were all 
drawn up on one side of the narrow passage, 
whilst they were marshalled in a parallel 



70 THE MAHJBATTA8. [Ch.U. 

liiie immediately confronting us. At the end 
of the hour— one of the longest I had ever 
passed — attar and paun were handed round, 
and we rose to depart with legs so cramp^ 
and benumbed, that we quitted the presence 
more like a troop of hobbling Chelsea pea- 
8^)ners, than sound and active adolescent!^. 

We reached camp in time for a nine o'clock 
dinner at the Residency. 

The next morning I accon^panied the Comr 
mander-in-chief on a visit to the fort of Gwa- 
lior ; the Mahrattas granting the desired per- 
mi^ion without any apparent jealousy of our 
inspection. There is only one entrance to 
this stronghold, by a gateway and stair prac- 
tised in the abrupt face of the rock, on the 
north-west side : the steps, which are of so 
gentle an ascent that our elephants followed 
us up without difficulty, are protected on the 
outer side by a high and thick stone wall, 
and are swept by several traversing guns 
pointing down them. 

On the inner side, the rock has been in 



Ch.IL] OWALIOR. 71 

many points excavated for water-tanks ; or 
to form the rude retreats of sundry pious 
anchorites, who smitten with an ascetic dis- 
gust for the vanities of the world, and a still 
greater distaste for manual labour^ retire to 
meditate in rags on the immortality and trans- 
migration of the soul ; and in the mean time 
retard as much as possible the mortality of 
the body, by living on the fat of the land, 
which is poured into their dens by their 8U«> 
perstitious and less crafty neighbours. Other 
portions of the precipitous face of the rock 
are ornamented with sculptured editions of 
gods and devils. The surface of the hill is 
nearly flat ; its outline presenting numerous 
natural angles favourable to fortification ; and 
the M'hole circumference is defended with 
formidable stone walls and bastions. 

The northern extremity is totally impreg- 
nable ; and on that point stands the citadel, 
a fine collection of half ruined buildings, 
though not snug enough for English ideas of 
fortification. Seven or eight spacious tanks, 
cut at vast labour in the rock, supply the 



72 THE MAHRATTAS. [Ch.ll. 

place with a quantity of water suflScient for a 
long siege ; though a very numerous garrison 
— ^not fewer than fifteen thousand men — ^would 
be required for its defence. In spite of its 
boasted impregnability, Gwalior was not proof 
against English enterprize. It succumbed in 
1780 to Major Popham, who gained it by a 
successful stratagem, with little loss, and 
without the aid of guns. Its fall is thus de- 
scribed : — two noted robbers, who had been 
in the constant habit of plundering the fort, 
and escaping, undiscovered, through some un- 
known outlet in the fortification, ofiered, for 
a handsome reward, to lead Popham and his 
men to the accessible point. Rope-ladders 
being secretly prepared, and the sepoys 
provided with shoes adapted to climbing, 
in the middle of a dark night the robbers 
guided the little party to a point in the south- 
ern face, where a wooded ravine runs for some 
distance into the fortified rock. Captain Bruce 
— a brother of the African traveller — who 
led the advance, gained the spot in silence 
with twenty picked men ; the guides climbed 



CIlIL] owalior. 73 * 

up by crevices in the stones, with which they 
were well acquainted; fixed the ladders on 
the wall, and the Englishman and his merry 
men were soon at the top. The gallant 
Captain with his little party, had scarcely 
reached the summit when they encountered 
a picquet of the enemy, going the rounds : 
these they attacked with the bayonet and 
dispersed ; but the alarm was given to the 
citadel, and so little were the enemy aware of 
the smallness of the force which had gained 
the ramparts, that they delayed their attack 
for some time, in order that they might collect 
their strength to repulse the little handful of 
assailants. In the mean time, Popham with 
a whole regiment had ascended by escalade, 
and were now at Bruce's side. They imme- 
diately seized some important points of the 
fortress, ere their guards were sufficiently re- 
inforced ; and the Killardar, completely taken 
by surprise, and paralyzed by the suddenness 
and impetuosity of the attack, quickly sur- 
rendered the citadel. 
An old grey-headed officer, who had served 



74 THE MAHBATTAS. [Ch. 11. 

m tihe fort at the time of its fall, pointed out 
the escaladed spot. From above, it appeals 
ulmost inaccessible. It still bears the honour* 
able appellation of Feringee Pahar, or the 
^ Englishman's Hill.' In the zenith of thd 
Mogul empire, Gwalior was used as the State 
prison. In its dreary dungeons the emperors 
ponfined unsuccessful rebels, and usurpers 
incarcerated deposed princes : here they lin- 
gered until death, natural or violent, put a 
period to their miseries. The most fashion- 
able method of getting rid of objectionable 
captives, was by administering to them aa 
infusion of poppies, which gradually be- 
numbed the faculties of the mind, and slowly 
but surely undermined the constitution of 
the body. In these dungeons, and by these 
means, Aurungzebe imprisoned and disposed 
of bis brothers, Dara and Morad, hi^ son 
Mohummed^ and various other delinquent 
relatives. The date of the founding of Gwa- 
lior is uncertain, but Rajahs of that place are 
made honourable mention of in Indian hia- 
tory^ as far back as A.D. 1008, 



eb.21.] GWALIOB. 75 

On leaving the fort we received a ' present 
arms* from the garrison, which is oiiiccrcd by 
Armenians, who cut ratiier strange figures in 
their sepoys' clothes, and little round hats. 

After breakfast, having heard of three wild 
bogs in the neighbouring sugar-canes, we 
assembled some beaters, mounted our horses, 
and went in pursuit of tliem. We had several 
good gallops, but the cunning animals would 
not be forced to take the plain ; and easily 
eluded the sportsmen by running from one 
Gate to another. 

The boars of the northern provinces ar« 
greatly inferior in size and courage to those 
of Bengal. In the latter district these brutes 
will not bear much driving, but turn round 
and come to the charge at the slightest pro- 
vocation. The same halloo from the rider, 
which would only add wing3 to the flight of 
the lank northern hog, would be resented as 
an insult by the brawny Bengal boar, who it 
often in better condition for fighting than for 
fleeing. I have heard of more than one of 



.:i'- 



76 A SPORTING DIGRESSION. [Ch. 11. 

these irascible brutes being brought to the 
attack by no greater affront than the sports* 
man waving his hat towards him : and I have 
seen a sulky old tusker take post — like a 
knight-errant of yore — ^in a narrow path, be- 
tween two hoglas *, where his flank could not 
be turned, and repulse half a dozen expe- 
rienced spearsmen, who came up to the attack 
in succession. 

To the hog-hunting of Bengal the palm of 
sporting supremacy must certainly be ad- 
judged. Few, who have had opportunities of 
enjoying both in perfection, will balance be- 
tween the tiger and the boar. In the pursuit 
of the former shikkar, the sportsman — though 
there are certainly some casual risks to 
heighten the interest, and add to the excite- 
ment — feels himself, in his pride of place, 
ten feet above the ground, comparatively se- 
cure ; and, should any accident befall him, 
it is generally traceable to the misconduct of 
the elephant, or the timidity of the mahout, 

♦ Covert of gigantic reeds. 



Ch.II.] HOO-HUNTINO. 77 

whose situation^ poor devil ! with a furious 
tiger before him, and a bad shot behind him 
is anything but enviable. 

In the boar-hunt, on the contrary, the 
sportsman depends entirely on his own adroit- 
ness. To have any chance of distinguishing 
himself, he must have the seat and the judg- 
ment of a fox -hunter, the eye of a falconer, 
the arm of a lancer, and above all a horse 
fleeti active, bold, and well-iu-hand. The 
art of following the headlong progress of a 
hog through a covert is only to be gained by 
experience. I have seen young hands ride 
boldly and furiously all the day, and tire two 
or three good horses without once blooding a 
spear, whilst an adept at the sport has had 
the first spear at every hog, and hardly put 
his horse out of a hand-gallop. 

In some cases, however, gentle riding is 
nothing worth. When a good fresh boar, not 
overcharged with flesh, is driven on to the 
meidaun^, and tempted to try his speed 
across it to the opposite jungle, nothing short 

♦ Plain. 



78 A SPORTING DIGRESSION. fCh. U. 

of the best pace of the best horse will suffice 
to bring him to bay, or to cut him off from 
the covert. A hog, bent on retreat, will dash 
through the thickest fence of prickly-pear as 
if it were a young quick edge ; spring over a 
fifteen feet ditch with the agility of a deer ; 
and should he meet with a precipitous ravine 
in his path, he tumbles into it, and out of it, as 
if he had not got a neck to break. These same 
obstacles lie in the way of the rider, who has 
to bear it constantly in mind, that, tinlike the 
fox-hunter, he carries a sharp-edged weapon 
in his hand, which, in an awkward grip, he 
may chance to run into his steed, and which 
in a fall may prove an tigly companion to 
himself. 

At Calcutta there is — or rather was^ for the 
paucity of game has obliged them to give it 
up — a hog-hunting society styled the Tent 
Club ; who, not having the fear of fevers 
and cholera before their eyes, were in the 
weekly habit of resorting to the jungles 
within fifty miles of the city in pursuit of 
this noble sport. Each member was em- 



Gli.n.] THE TENT CLUB. 79 

powered to invite two guests : the club was 
well proYided with tents, elephants, and other 
sporting paraphernalia ; nor was the gastro- 
nomic part of the sport neglected, Hodg- 
son's pale ale, claret, and even champaign 
have been known to flow freely in those wild 
deserts, unaccustomed to echo the forester's 
song, or the complacent bubble of the fraf^rant 
hookah. Gaunt boars were vanquished in 
the morning, their delicate steaks devoured in 
the evening, and the identical animals thrice 
slain again, with all the zest of sporting re- 
capitulation. How often has the frail roof of 
the ruined silk-factory at Buckra rung to the 
merry laugh of the mercurial S , trembled 
with the stentorian song of the sturdy B , 
and the hearty chorus of a dozen jolly fellows, 
who on quitting Calcutta left a load of care 
behind^ and brought a load of fun. 

The above-named deserted edifice is situ- 
ated, far from the busy haunts of men, in the 
midst of an extensive forest, and was a fa- 
vourite resort of the Tent Club on these occa- 
sions. The ground floor was occupied by the 



68 THE MAHRATTAS. [Ch. II. 

Combermere received a salute from the 
cavalry and infantry body-guard, who were 
drawn up on either aide the courts accoutred 
and clothed in imitation of the Company's 
ai'my. The * present arms ' of the infantry, 
however, was not quite in strict accordance 
with ' Torrens ;' for at the third motion every 
man raised his right hand to his cap. The 
horse-guards are beautifully mounted : in 
their ranks, as I was informed, there are a 
considerable number of troopers, who were 
formerly in the Honourable Company's ser- 
vice, and who broke up in a body from the 
fourth cavalry, in a fit of discontent. 

Dismounting from our elephants, and enter- 
ing the palace, we were piloted through nu- 
merous dark alleys, and stumbled up sundry 
blind staircases, ere we reached the hall of 
audience, which was, in fact, nothing more 
than a long veranda. The floor was carpeted 
with white cotton, so thickly quilted that we 
sunk up to our ankles as we walked ; and to 
this stuffing we were subsequently much be- 
holden, as there was not such a quadruped as 



Ch.II.] SCINDIA^S CAMP. . 00 

a chair in the Mahratta camp ; and during 
the audience, which lasted a full hour, we 
were obliged to sit cross-legged, like Turks 
or tailors, on saddle-cloths spread on the floor, 
the characteristic seat of the warlike Mah- 
ratta, to whom the unsheltered and unfur- 
nished bivouac is a natural home. In sitting, 
the great point to be observed was the keep- 
ing the soles of the feet out of sight, an article 
of etiquette which the native chiefs easily 
accomplished by sitting on their heels, with 
their knees resting on the ground ; but this 
posture I found, after several fruitless (I was 
going to say bootless) experiments^ totally 
incompatible with our armed heels. We 
therefore squatted, each after his own fashion: 
nor do I think any novelty of attitude was 
struck out which was likely to be adopted by 
the natives, who did not disguise their amuse- 
ment at the unpliable rigidity of British limbs; 
the uneasy contortions of which they were in 
a good situation to witness, as we were all 
drawn up on one side of the narrow passage, 
whilst they were marshalled in a parallel 



70 THE MAHJftATTA^. [Cb. U. 

line imijaediately confronting us. At the end 
of the hour— one of the longest I bad ever 
passed — attar and paun were handed round, 
and we rose to depart with legs so cramped 
and benumbed, that we quitted the presence 
more like a troop of hobbling Chelsea pen- 
Bfoners, than sound and active adolescenti^. 

We reached camp in time for a nine o'clock 
dinner at the Residency . 

The next morning I accompanied the Comr 
mander-in-chief on a visit to the fort of Gwa- 
lior ; the Mahrattas granting the desired per- 
piission without any apparent jealousy of our 
inspection. There is only one entrance to 
thii^ stronghold, by a gateway and stair prac- 
tised in the abrupt face of the rock, on the 
north-west side : the steps, which are of so 
gentle an ascent that our elephants followed 
us up without difficulty, are protected on the 
outer side by a high and thick stone wall, 
and are swept by several traversing guns 
pointing down them. 

On the inner side, the rock has been in 



Cb.lL] GWALIOR. 71 

many points excavated for water-tanks ; or 
to form the rude retreats of sundry pious 
anchorites, who smitten with an ascetic dis- 
gust for the vanities of the world, and a still 
greater distaste for manual labour^ retire to 
meditate in rags on the immortality and trans- 
migration of the soul ; and in the mean time 
retard as much as possible the mortality of 
the body, by living on the fat of the land, 
which is poured into their dens by their su** 
perstitious and less crafty neighbours. Other 
portions of the precipitous face of the rock 
are ornamented with sculptured editions of 
gods and devils. The surface of the hill is 
nearly flat ; its outline presenting numerous 
natural angles favourable to fortification ; and 
the whole circumference is defended with 
formidable stone walls and bastions. 

The northern extremity is totally impreg- 
nable ; and on that point stands the citadel, 
a fine collection of half ruined buildings, 
though not snug enough for English ideas of 
fortification. Seven or eight spacious tanks, 
cut at vast labour in the rock, supply the 



84 HOG-HUNTING. [du IL 

a fine boar through a thick mulberry-cate into 
a small patch of rushes, bordering a nullah, 
where we lost him. Near the spot where he 
had disappeared, a turf dam about four feet 
wide intersected the almost stagnant brook; 
and, fancying that I traced .the hog's foot- 
print along it, I spurred my horse on it, in 
order to cross to the opposite bank. I had 
reached about the middle of the narrow cause- 
way, when the rushes which fringed the t6te 
du pont suddenly opened to the right and 
left, and disclosed the foam-sprinkled snout, 
and little savage eyes of the already slightly- 
wounded hog. 

To retreat was impossible ; and I had just 
determined on a desperate advance, when the 
furious brute, bursting from his lurking-place, 
came thundering along the dam — a word 
which, with the final addition of * nation ! ' I had 
scarcely time to ejaculate, ere I found myself 
and steed floundering in the deep, muddy, 
and by no means fragrant pool. Half drowned, 
and with the loss of a stirrup— which, being 



Ch.n.] AN ANECDOTE. 85 

made after an improTed principle, slipped 
backwards out of the socket in my struggles 
to keep my seat — I at length regained terra 
firma, and with my remaining stirrup sped my 
way to an extensive plain, where I fell in with 
a scene which will be readily remembered by 
those who were present. The boar was at 
bay — ^but how at bay? he was standing grind- 
ing his tusks, and completely blown, his legs 
trembling with mingled fury and fatigue ; and 
immediately opposite to him, at the distance 
of half a dozen paces, stood a hapless cava- 
lier, divorced from both horse and spear, with 
a pallid countenance, and hands outstretched 
in a deprecating attitude towards his remorse- 
less foe, who was manifestly only delaying 
his attack until he had recovered sufficient 
breath for the purpose. The unhorsed knight 
was, however, not left to the tender mercies 
of the boar, whose attention was diverted— 
pleasant diversion ! — ^by a spear through the 
loins from a second horseman, followed by 
such a shower of javelins, that the beast, who 
still kept his legs, though life was ebbing fast. 



66 THE MAHRATTAS. [C3i. 11. 

looked more like the fretful porcupine than 
any other of the pork genus. 

But it is high time that I should dismount 
from my hog-hunting hobby, and, remounting 
my * enchanted horse,' offer my reader a seat 
on the crupper. 'Tis done ; the magic screw 
is turned, and after a breathless flight through 
the air, we alight once more at Gwalior, just 
in time to assist at the visit of Maha Rajah 
Scindia to the British Commander-in-chief. 
His juvenile Majesty arrived for that purpose 
at the Residency, in grand state, at 4 p,m., 
the whole of the Head-quarters party having 
sallied out to give him a half-way meeting, and 
the British escort giving him a rattling * pre- 
sent arms ' as he descended from his elephant. 
The Residency-rooms having been duly qua- 
lified for a Mahratta sederunt — by a previous 
ejection of all chairs and sofas — ^we enjoyed 
a cross-legged squat on the carpet for an 
hour. The Prince Hindoo Rao, in order to 
create a sensation, came in very late ; all the 
chiefs, and even the Rajah himself, rising at 
his entrance. After making a sweeping 



Cb.IL] OWALIOR. 87 

salaam, he threw himself down on his saddle- 
cloth, and drawing his sword, dagger, and 
pistols from his belt, placed them before him 
on the carpet, with an air that would have 
been in good keeping with a reckless ch^f de 
brigands just returned from an unsuccessful 
expedition. The custom, so prevalent among 
the Mahrattas, of wearing arms from their 
earliest infancy, and even on court occasionSi 
is at variance with the usage of the Mussul- 
mans, who, with the exception, perhaps, of a 
few immediate favourites, are forbidden to 
carry any weapon in the presence of their 
sovereign. 

Among others of Scindia's suite, a little, 
pursy, bustling, aldermanish character, in 
* fair round belly, with good curry lined,' was 
presented to his Lordship : his name, Munny 
Ram, bespoke his profession, as his appear- 
ance indicated its prosperity — he was a banker. 
The funded proprietor of three millions ster- 
ling, the little Schroff lives in apparent secu- 
rity amongst a people whose name a few years 
back was almost identified with robber and 



88 THE MAHRATTAS. [Ch.lL 

marauder, and in a kingdom where a regular 
court of justice is not known*. 

Mahratta proper names are certainly any- 
thing but musical, and grate as harshly upon 
an ear accustomed to the. sonorous titles of 
Mohammedan courts, as would the Russian 
Tchitchagoflf when in juxta-position with 
the Italian Montebello. The Maha Rajah's 
denomination is Mookub Row Scindia, and 
that of the Commandant of Cavalry — a nom 
de guerre, indeed ! — is Ram Row Polkee. 

Jan. 5th. Head-quarters camp broke up 
from its site on the north-east side of Gwalior, 
marched through Scindia's Camp, and was re- 
.erected at the village of Jinseer, on the south- 
west flank of the fortress. Our route led us 
through Scindia's park of artillery, which ap- 
pears to be the most eflScient arm of his force. 
It consists at present of about one hundred 
and fifty brass guns of various calibres ; and 

♦ Disputes are settled by a temporary assembly of five, called 
a Puncheyat, from whom there is no appeal, except to the sove- 
reign. The most liberal of the litigants generally gains the cause. 



Ch.II.J SCINDIA'B CAMP. 80 

the golund^ze, or artillery-men, are celebrated 
for their skill, and their desperate devotion to 
their guns. They distinguish every piece with 
some pet title, and on holydays deck them 
out with garlands. This day every one of 
Scmdia's artillery was honoured with a chap- 
let of marygolds. At the storming of Bhurt- 
pore we had an interesting proof of the almost 
superstitious valour of the golundAze : as our 
troops forced their way along the rami)art8 of 
the town, every gun in succession was despe- 
rately defended, and, ere it fell into our hands, 
its entire complement of men were strewed 
dead around its carriage. 

We had not been many hours in our new 
camp before we found ourselves again in 
cap-a-pie panoply, mounted on our jaded 
elephants — who must be at least as tired of 
these visit-making, sight-showing Mahrattas 
as their riders — and once more trudging — for 
I know no other word so significant of an 
elephant's action — towards Scindia's Camp. 
Nothing would suit his Majesty but giving us 
a dinner : in pursuance of which fancy we are 



9Q THE MAHRATTAiS. [Ch. IL 

this evening to be paraded, in ^ heavy march- 
ing order/ with our knives and forks, in the 
grand andience-hall ; in order that the ^ balr^ 
barians ' may witness how the infidel Ferin- 
gees swallow their food, and guzzle down 
their wine. The latter commodity is fortun- 
ately to be furnished by the Resident, or we 
might have a still better chance of being poi- 
soned than we enjoy as it is. If looks could 
convey that * soon speeding gear,' we should 
already have quafied quantum sufif. from the 
crusty countenances of our hosts. 

On our entrance into the town, our caval- 
cade was met by that of the arch-ruffian 
Hindoo Rao. The two chiefs dismounted, 
embraced, remounted, and we proceeded. In 
our progress through the streets of the brick- 
and-mortar camp, I observed a large house, 
which, though evidently of recent structure, 
was in complete ruin ; the walls riddled with 
cannon-shot, and the offices blackened with 
fire ; and I enquired its history from a respect- 
able-looking courtier, who was on his elephant 
alongside of me. After looking suspiciously 



Gh.II] SCINDIA's GAMP. 91 

aronnd him^ (as if any lengthened verbal 
communion between individuals of the two 
suites was interdicted^) he made me under* 
stand, as well as he could, that the owner of 
the house, a member of the royal family, and 
enjoying under Scindia a command of iiv6 
hundred Arabs, had revolted for arrears of 
pay for his troops and himself. His mutinous 
requisition was refused, and the troops of the 
Company's Cotitingent were directed to seize 
the rebel in his palace. His Arabs fought, as 
they always do, like devils incarnate ; but 
the house being soon battered to pieces, and 
rendered untenable, the besieged made a des- 
perate sortie, wounded the commanding officer 
of the Contingent, Major Stubbs, cut their 
way through all opposition, and finally made 
good their retreat to Eujaine, a fortress in 
the extreme south of Scindia's territories. 

Thither the English Major, with his forces, 
followed him, and before we quitted Gwalior, 
the intelligence of the capture of the rebellious 
prince reached the camp. 

Our first visit was to the late Scindia's 



92 scindia's camp. 



[Ch. II. 



Ranee. The old lady of course did not expose 
her charms to the rude gaze of men, but held 
converse with Lord C. through a purdar at 
the end of the hall. His Excellency was 
next invited to attend the Prince to his pa- 
lace ; and there we were treated with the 
luxury of chairs. The walls of his audience- 
room were adorned with several European 
prints ; amongst others, a fine ruddy-coloured 
one of Titian's Venus. Two infant relations 
attended his levee: the youngest a pretty 
boy of five years old, was already a» warrior, 
and wore a jewelled sword in his belt, that 
would have been a meet weapon for * mighty 
Thomas Thumb,' and roused the jealousy of 
the embryo heroes of our English nurseries. 

After half an hour's session, pawn and 
spices richly gilt and plated, were distri- 
buted ; and our party, accompanied by the 
prince, adjourned to the meid^n or plain, to 
witness some tournaments prepared for our 
entertainment by the Mahratta officers. On 
our arrival at the lists, we found two parties 
of cavaliers, all shewily attired, and mounted 



Ch,!!.] MARTIAL OAMCB. 03 

chiefly on beautiful Deckanee horses, ranged 
opposite each other on either extremity of a 
level piece of ground. Each man carried a 
lance made expressly for practice ; much 
longer than the war-spear, and pointed with 
a ball of cloth. This weapon is ill calculated 
for real service, for when the horse is in 
violent action, it quivers so strongly, that it 
must be impossible to direct its point with 
any degree of accuracy. 

The two adverse troops soon came to action, 
one retreating and defending themselves, the 
other pursuing and attacking. The prettiest 
part of the sport, however, was the single 
combats. The parties stood confronting each 
other ; presently a warrior dashed forth from 
one of the groups, and curvetted about the 
plain, until a knight from the opposite side 
accepted his challenge, and spurred to the 
encounter. Some of the chiefs showed con- 
siderable skill in the use of their unwieldy 
weapon, but I would gladly have backed 
Captain Anderson of * Dougan's Horse,' or 
Captain Skinner, against the most expert 



94 scindia's camp. 



[Ch. II. 



amongst their ranks. In the last of these 
single combats, there was an evident loss of 
temper on the part of a burly old chieftain, 
who received a tremendous thrust in the ribs, 
find retaliated on the bestower by some unfair 
blow. A cry of disapprobation immediately 
arose, and half a dozen partisans rushed from 
the ranks on either side ; and would doubtless 
soon have betaken themselves to their swords, 
had not the old commandant galloped up, and 
yrith a stern voice ordered them to their posts. 
Quitting the scene of the jousts, we pro- 
ceeded to our dinner engagement at the royal 
palace, and after undergoing another dur- 
bar — which appeared even longer and more 
tedious than that heaviest of half hours which 
usually precedes a dinner-party in England — 
we were ushered in grand state into the ban- 
quetting-hall, a lofty vaulted apartment, bear- 
ing more the appearance of a chapel than a 
dining-room. A long table was laid down the 
centre of the hall, and a line of chairs ranged 
for the guests along one side of it, whilst the 
other was left open for the operations of the 



Ch. II.] 



A MAHRATTA FEAST. 95 



ministers to our appetites, and to expose us 
more satisfactorily to the curiosity of the 
spectators. The former were chiefly Hindoos 
of respectability; and it was the first time 
that any of us had been waited upon at table 
by members of that sect. The latter were 
composed of the Maha Rajah, his relatives, 
and courtiers, who sat apart from the table, 
but in such a position as enabled them to 
enfilade its whole length with their curious 
eyes. The partial upraising too of a silken 
purdar, above the door at the top of the 
hall, betrayed to us, that eyes invisible from 
below, — those of the pretty prisoners of the 
Zenana, — were employed in criticising the 
Feringees' feast. 

The Hindoos are mere tyros in gastronomy 
as compared with their more courtly and fas- 
tidious neighbours the Mussulmans: some of 
their pillaus and cawabs were, however, sufli- 
ciently savoury. The dishes were not placed 
on the board ; but were carried by troops of 
zealous attendants down the uiitenanted side 
of the table ; each in rapid succession pre- 



96 SCINDIA's camp. [CklL 

senting his smoking burthen, describing its 
exquisite qualities with the eloquence' of an 
auctioneer, and exhorting the guests in the 
most moving terms to partake of it. Refusal 
was out of the question, and in a few minutes 
my plate became a perfect mountain of con- 
fused sweets and savouries — a rudis indigesta 
que moles ! — a complete culinary chaos ! 

Our entertainers must have thought us a 
right merry set of fellows ; for we were all 
nearly convulsed, and I was quite choked 
with laughter, excited by the very eager and 
enthusiastic manner in which some oif the 
table-attendants displayed the good points of 
their respective viands. One fellow exalted 
a large fried fish in mid air, holding it up by 
the tail in his fingers ; and wound up his de- 
clamatory eulogium by plumping it down on 
my plate, which was already swimming with 
a kind of cr^me fouett^e, administered by his 
precursor. A second uplifted by the leg, and 
twirled between his finger and thumb, a huge 
cawdbbed capon, which from its gigantic pro- 
portions, and the sprawling, untrussed state 



ChtlL] A MAHRATTA FEAST. 97 

of its limbs, exceedingly resembled a young 
grilled Hindoo. 

No dish appeared a second time, each being 
carried off as it reached the foot of the table — 
series after series came in, and we might have 
been dining until this moment, had not his 
lordship requested their forbearance just as 
they were ushering in the fiftieth course. I 
omitted to say that the table appurtenances 
were furnished by the resident. Thus ended 
tjie first and only feast that I was ever bidden 
tp by the disciples of Hrahmah ; and if in 
culinary qualities it fell short of the Mussul- 
man tables which had been spread for us 
during our tour, it was at least infinitely more 
productive of food for merriment. 

We rose from this amusing though fatiguing 
banquet, with heads aching from the savoury 
vapours of the smoking hecatombs heaped by 
our profuse hosts upon the altar of our appe- 
tites, and with sides aching from the cachin- 
natory convulsions we had undergone, the 
semi-suppression of which was even more 

Vol. II. U 



98 scindia's CAMP. [6h.ri. 

arduous than itd uurestraiued iudttlgeUc^ 
would have been. 

Frorii the banqueting-^hdll ^e "Wtte tiyn- 
ducted to a veranda, whefe w^ Weffe efltgf- 
fMtted by a Splendid display Of fite#bi*kS. I 
ttrhafkedy not ift^ithout ftinud^ment^ that tb^ 
cdurtiers eyed Us with Cautious Glifiesity ftftei' 
4inn^f ; aUd sefemed rather ib avoid enterifigf 
Into conversation; and I immediately edn- 
duded, that, in accordance ^ith the natives' 
g^uetally-ireceived idea of the pn^ofieuesis of 
Europeans to ritlous excesses, they itnagined, 
as a matter of course, that we were all iii(^& 
or less under the influence of the merry god. 

^he pyrotechnic spectacle beJug cOUClUded 
by about eleven o'clock, we arose, and taking 
si final farewell of the youUg SciUdia, mounted 
but eleptantis and proceeded towards cauip, 
accompanied by the prince Hindoo KaO, and 
a party of the Mahratta nobles. I was just 
complacently Calculating Ofl an uninterrupted 
retreat to rny tent, frOm which I had been 
how absent iiine hours, — the fagged ele- 



Ch.ll.) MAHRATTA ENTERTAINMENTS. 99 

phants even showing by their aFert motions 
theif sympathy in oiir homeward aspirations, 
•--when the cavalcade was suddenly arrested, 
(at the entrance 6f what appeared to us 
through thfe dusk to be ati extensive planta- 
tion of rather fohnal-lobking shrubs,) by the 
drtifieial fbrfest bufsting forth into leaves and 
frdits of vivid flames ; a miracle of vegetation 
i^hich instantly routed our astonished ele- 
phants ; who turning about, made off at a 
frightful pace through the town — no matter of 
mirth in a dark night. As soon as my annual 
was ^xrevailed upon — by half a dozen digs on 
the head, the tenderest of which would have 
brained an ox — to return to the cavalcade, 
ttif friend, the chief — whose name, a tissue 
of dissonant consonants, I cannot recollect— 
offered to shew me that prejudice, even in 
elephants, is vincible by education. At a 
gringtc word of encouragemfcnt, his beautiful 
ctnimal carried him into the tnidst of the blaz- 
ing and crackling forest, and on a hint from 
his master, wrenched up by the roots one of 
the trees which had already shed its gdldcn 

II 2 



100 THE MAHRATTAS. [Ch. II. 

fruits, and stood in the way of those which 
were still unexhausted. After this exhibition 
the prince and his followers took leave, and 
we reached our camp without further molesta- 
tion. With what joy did I throw off my 
heavy, embroidered dress, and commit my- 
self to the refreshing offices of my faithful 
bearers, after a long day of constant excite- 
ment and exposure to the sun. To the mi- 
nistry of these toilet assistants I was, like 
many of my countrymen, for the first year of 
my life in India, resolutely averse : but find- 
ing all my efforts to exclude them from my 
presence unavailing, I at length surrendered 
at discretion, and gave up all right and title 
to dress my own person : a cession of privi- 
leges which certainly saves the yielder a great 
deal of unnecessary and uninteresting labour; 
in a climate where the pulling on of a boot is 
a work of inordinate exertion, and the tying 
of a cravat is accomplished in the sweat of 
the brow. 

Jan. 6th. y therm. 6 a.m., .34°. Head-quarters 



Ch.II.] ANTUEE. 101 

camp broke up from Gwalior; and we saw 
the last of that gaunt and frowning fortress 
as we entered the rocky defile of the Pass of 
Antree ; beyond which, near a village of the 
same name, our canvas home was erected 
for the day. After having extracted three 
days' novelty and amusement from the Mah- 
rattas, I was not sorry to exchange the rest- 
less and bustling TumAsha of Scindia s court 
for the pleasant morning march, constant 
variety of scenery, and evening field sports 
of our roving camp. 

In taking leave of this eccentric people, how- 
ever, it is but justice to pay them the passing 
compliment of confessing that my personal 
acquaintance with them, slight as it was, 
tended to raise them a hundredfold above the 
standard of my preconceived opinion. The 
wandering horde of lawless freebooters, who, 
like a flight of locusts, spread for so many 
years their desolating influence over the fertile 
provinces of India, have at length, emulative 
of the more respectable bee, quietly alighted 
in one swarm, and gradually settled down into 



102 THE MAHRATTAS. ICh. JJ. 

a regular government; contenting tbemsplves 
with the revej^ues jirg,vn fron^ ):heir own 
states, instead of pl^yijig th-e Jiigh^^^aypajain 
ip the domipions of theif npig^lnoura : ^ji 
amelioration in civil goveri^ment, as well as 
in moral policy, for which they are iijdebfed 
more perhaps to the overawing influ^ncie of 
the British power tlian tp the ift^^rch gf ho- 
ij^sty in themselyes* Pe the causp, howeyjer, 
.what it may, the efjfect is be):>efici^l; Ip 
JV|ahratta ethics meupa and tifum ^re pp 
longer so confounded and blended, i^s tq hp 
scarcely distinguishable one from the ptljer: 
p|-pperty is respected, as the rich Mijnny 
Barn's unviolated coffers ^ttest; hospitality 
and good faith towards strapgers are in pretty 
good practice; and heads rest with a tolerably 

» 

secure tenure on their owp natiye shoulders. 

I was not sorry to see the last of his hec- 
toring highness, Hindoo Rao ; whose swag- 
gering carriage, haughty air, and overbearing 
character made him no great fayourite at 
Head-quarters ; and I was more inclined tp 
be gratified than to sympathize with hin^, 



Ch.IL] ANTSEE. 103 

when the following anecdote, in which one of 
his most violent passions, that for the sex, 
was thwarted in the most provoking manner, 
was related to me. 

T^Q prince had purchased at an extrava- 
g^t price a young slave girl, with the fame 
of whose extraordinary beauty he ht^d become 
eoamoured. A young rou^ Mussu)pian» a 
half-brother of the royal purchaser, I^card qf 
thp f^iv maiden's arrival, and contrived to get 
t))0 first introduction to her. T)ie elder brother 
was furious on hearing of this escapade ; b]4t 
the mishap was irremediable, and his only 
consolation was in revenge. The reprobate 
sprig of royalty was seized, bound, and most 
cruelly bastii^adoed in tlie presence of thp 
wronged brother. 



104 



CHAPTER III. 
THE PROVINCE OF BUNDELCUND. 

On the 8th we crossed the river Sind, leaving 
the territories of Scindia behind us, and en- 
tering Bundelcund, a province cut up and 
subdivided into numerous petty principalities, 
or baronies, the greater proportion of which 
are not more productive in revenue than the 
unpretending estates of some of the richer 
commoners of England. 

The following morning we were welcomed 
by the Rajah of Dutteah, who escorted the 
Commander-in-chief through his capital to 
the camp, which was pitched without the 
walls. The city of Dutteah is extensive, 
commandingly situated, and surrounded by 
a beautifully-built stone waU. On a lofty, 
rocky foundation, in the centre of the place, 
stands an ancient palace of very elegant ar- 
chitecture. The Rajah chiefly resides in a 
more modern building lower down in the 



Ch.IIL] DUTTEAH. 106 

town. Dutteah is one of those principalities 
which were confirmed to their hereditary 
chieftains, when the province of Bundelcund 
was ceded to the Company, under conditions 
of reciprocal support. The revenue of the 
state is about ten lacs of rupees, or one hun- 
dred thousand pounds. It appears surprising 
that, with so inconsiderable a sum, the chief 
can support an army, three great fortresses, 
and a considerable retinue. The Rajah has 
always been considered a true and faithful 
ally of the Company ; and as a proof of their 
confidence in his friendship, the government 
have presented him with a couple of brass 
guns, a gift which, in the eyes of the natives, 
implies tlie most implicit trust. He has de- 
fended himself more than once successfully 
against the inroads of Scindia, whose over- 
powering force, however, would have, long ere 
this, swallowed up his little kingdom, had not 
the all-potent .Egis of British protection been 
extended in his defence. 

Dutteah is altogether the prettiest spot, 
and most habitable place I have yet seen in 



if^ PROVINCE fiJP gyNgELCUND. [Gl^, JJI, 

rtjppiaios; geiitly-|tpdi|latmg J^Hs, plenti- 
fully supplieji ^fth wop4 W4 Wt^^? surfp»$4 
^^le towa; and the r^yal Ri^fflwalj }^ ifpl] 
stpcked with g^flae pf every sppciep. Qi} pp|g 
of these jBpiiRences, four wiles froi^ (lie ^aUs^ 
tji^ere is a curipu^ clif^ter pf tempji^s, buijt by 
a now-?ilmpst extinct sect pf Hjndpos, c^Ui^^ 
tjTeines. Their persu^sipjjhe^rs, J bplieve, spfna 
affiiiity tp th£i,t of the puddfsts. Thp||g}i tbpy 
ar^ now }n the ioiwori|:y, jthey ^tiU uph[ei4 
tbpir creed as the ortlipdp?^ pindppismj ai^4 
look uppp the piajority pf the JJiijdpps ^^ 
ignpr^nt dissepters. 

We paid a yisit pf cerpjftpny tP th^ R?y^ft 
ip the afternoon ; but to h^vp despril^ed ppg 
visit tp a native prince, is to baye ^ketphed 
tl^e le^d^^S fes-ture^ pf all Jndian court Jevp^f . 
The Dutteah chieftain is 3, flpp-Jpoking, rp- 
^ppctable 0I4 n^an, and ^ ci-deyapt great 
sportsman. For sylvan apausements he js, 
J^pypver, ppw disqualified by excessive cprr 
pulence and lameness frpfu ^ distorted fppt. 
I^is minister is a fine spieciuien of patriarchal 
|^p9.iity, B-pd rptains all l^is fi^cpjtie? ^t tlje age 
of ninety. 



After the durbar, we went to see );he roy^J 
g^dens^ whicb» like most other native bai|gs^ 
"ijrere replete with st^raigl)); walks, fountai^s, 
prange-tjrees, and marigolds. The most inte- 
resting otyect was a well, truly mgignificent in 
its architecture and proportions. The shaff: 
presented an pctagon of about t\venty feet 
§pai), suffounded with columne4 cloisters, aqd 
^t each angle a stpi)^ elephant, with uplifted 
prpl^pscis, spouted water to a vast height into 
tfoe a|r. 

The follpwipg morning was devoted to a 
grand battue ip the royal preserve. Our ele- 
phants were sent forward by daylight, and 
vfe rpde on horseback to the place of rendez- 
vous. At first we were posted upon the top 
of two small turreted lodges on either side 
of the only oijtlp/; froip the walled Rumpah, 
and the gapie was driven towards us through 
the thick covert by crowds of men, who 
cheerfully confronted the very good chance 
of being shot, for the sake of a paltry reward. 
The Joss of two or three si|bject8, on such 



108 DUTTEAH. [Ch.III. 

occasions, is considered by the natives of 
rank as a contingency of trifling moment: 
but I confess I could not bring myself to pull 
my trigger, when the chances were about 
equal whether a boar or a fellow-creature fell 
to the shot. Tired of our stations on the gate- 
way, we soon mounted our elephants, and 
entered the preserve, where we in a very short 
space killed a dozen hogs. The deer and 
niel-ghie, of which there were great numbers, 
for the most part escaped by leaping the 
walls. Our morning's sport was concluded 
by nine o'clock. The day was spent by me 
in a solitary and tolerably productive poach 
in the Rumnah ; and in the evening the 
Rajah entertained us with a display of fire- 
works. 

Jan. Wth. Marched from Dutteah to Amaba, 
nine miles, through a country abounding in 
the wild beauties of wood and rock ; but 
cheerless and melancholy from the total ab- 
sence of cultivation. The whole of the Raj 
can hardly be of the like stamp, for the Rajah 



Ch. III.] AMAIIA. 109 

must be a subtle alchemist if he can extract 
one hundred thousand pounds from such ma- 
terials. 

In this part of India — as in the mountains 
of the north — Rajahs are ahnost as rife as 
country-gentlemen in England. A couple of 
easy marches suffice to take us through the 
territories of the richest of them. Tlie tra- 
veller has barely lost sight of the fortified 
towers of one metropolis, ere he finds himself 
in the suburbs of a neighbouring capital : he 
has scarcely bowed himself out of the august 
precincts of one royal court, ere he bolts 
into the presence of another crowned head. 

We are now enjoying an opportunity of 
seeing this little rookm/ of royalties under 
the most favourable circumstances. On the 
occasion of tlie auspicious visit of a British 
Member of Council, every chieftain furbishes 
up his almost rusted sword of state, mus- 
ters his ragamufiin retainers, and cooks up 
a portion of pomp commensurate with his 
means. With a little activity of imagination, 
a retrospective abridgment of time and space. 



110 JEfANSi. [Ch.Ili 

we iliight almost fancy oui^eltes back to the 
* g6od old' feudal tithes of ittferfy Eitgland; 
and that the grim and lordly turrets, uiidfer 
whose shade we almost dgtily fiitfch btit {ents, 
were the goodly castles of f hosfe butly bardns, 
who, on the occasion of a risif of a Stronger of 
rank, came forth ^th a Milium of fllen-at- 
£tfms, squires, and pageS, h3 weldothfe the 
lioble traveller ; and eilttttained him dutring 
his^ Sojourn with jousts, pk^ekhts, aM ttitt- 
stfelsy. 

I was btlsily employed in drawing the? slbdrf e 

parallel, as t^e crosi^ed the frotitiei^of theUiii- 
teah chief, when the gtidden apljearaftde of 
the Rajah of Jhansi, mOlltlted Oti hid tlepHdnU 
and preceded by i^o crfmc/-hei*dlds, Imrsf the 
analogical bubble that I hkd been blowing 
with so iriuch ingenuity. The Chief of Jhdnsi 
is a young man of twenty- four, of Jewish but 
handsome coUhtetlknce, and o^ Mdhratta ei- 
tf action. Hii^ royal retenue iiS froffl fifteen to 
eighteen lacs of rupees. At the distance of at 
few tniles, his capital beaf^ some resemblance 
to Windsor: the titadel, a lofty inass of build- 



Gklll.] BURWAri-SAUGER. Ill 

iiig, and distiiigttished by dtie huge round 
tower, is sSituated Oh a fock, at the foot of 
^hich lies the toWn, defended by a good wall^ 
and set round with fine titober. 

The Rajah seenls to take more pride in the 
appearance of his equipage^ ferid court thati 
he of Dutteah, for which the dijGference in 
years between the two potentates inky de- 
count. The streets arid ba^aard of the to^n 
are clean arid well regulated ; and thfe yoting 
Chief enfbifces, With the greateiSt strifctnesiS, 
the enafctirients which he has made fot the 
wfell-being of his subjects. 

We visited him iri hid patlfitce iri the after- 
rioon, tirid he gfeemed much gratiflfed by our 
commendations of the favoutafcle situation and 
apparent strength of his little fortress. Frorii 
the top of one of the bastioris we had a dis- 
tinct view of the eafetellated citadels bf tw6 of 
his brother Rajahg, Dtitteah arid Ourfcha. 

Jan. 13th. A march of twelvfe miles to the 
town of Burwah-Saitger. On the toad we 
crfcw«ed the pretty rivei* BehTa, Which, dtirlrig 



112 BUNDELCUND. [Ch. JII. 

the rainy season, must be a considerable 
stream. The country in the vicinity is barren 
in the extreme, and almost entirely devoid of 
game of any kind. Our guns and our hawks 
are consequently completely thrown out of 
work. The surface of the earth is stony and 
sandy, presenting no encouragement to the 
labours of the cultivator ; yet from its flinty 
bosom spring spontaneously the most luxu-. 
riant forests of fine trees, the dark and sombre, 
tints of whose foliage, however, are strongly 
contrasted with the lighter and more tender . 
colouring of Bengal vegetation. The town of 
Sanger is snugly enveloped by a screen of 
verdure, and just above it, on the extremity^ 
of a long and high ridge of rocks, stands a 
picturesque old castle. I walked up to this 
building after sunset, and on reaching the 
parapeted terrace, was surprised to find, 
spread beneath its southern wall, a piece of 
water, which has a better title to the name 
of a lake than any other I have seen in India. 
It may be about two miles across, and in the 
centre of its fair sheet of water are two woody 



C1I.IIL] BURWA-SAUGER. 113 

and rocky islets, which form striking objects 
in the landscape. The bund, or head of the 
jheelyis of solid stone masonry, sixty feet wide, 
and nearly a mile in length, and furnished 
with several ghauts, or flights of steps, to the 
water's edge. The chateau and circumjacent 
town have been frequently made the bone of 
contention between the chiefs of Dutteah 
and Jhansi, and Scindia ; and its western wall 
retains to this day the impressions of the 
cannon-shot of the latter worthy, who at- 
tacked the place about forty years ago. In 
the dusk of a gloomy and rather stormy 
evening, the hoary old chateau, with its 
frowning towers, and its accessories of black 
beetling rocks and deep foliage, presented a 
peculiarly romantic appearance ; reminding 
me of the scenes of some of Mrs. Ratcliffe's 
interesting horrors. 

The following day, the camp halted ; and 
the Commander-in-chief, accompanied by 
the staff, started on a visit to the Rajah of 
Ourcha, who holds his court at a town of the 

Vol. II. I 



114 BUNDELCUND. [Cauin.^ 

dame name, seven miles from Sanger. Our 
route lay through a country, the surface of 
which is undulated here and there with 
gentle eminences thickly clad with forest-* 
trees, and interspersed with those gigantic 
natural cairns of fantastically piled rocks/ 
peculiar to the province of Bundelcund. 
These accimiulations are usually of a conical 
form, and the huge round blocks of stone are 
sometimes heaped up to the height of one 
hundred or two hundred feet. Were it not for 
the unwieldy size of the component portions, 
the traveller would almost be led to imagme 
that the mechanical ingenuity of man had 
been employed in the structure. The rocky 
masses being of a circular form, wide inter- 
stices, admitting the light, are frequently 
found halfway down the pile ; and the enor- 
mous crag, which generally forms the apex 
of the natural pyramid, is, in many cases, so 
nicely poised, that it looks as though a puff of 
wind would destroy its delicate equilibrium, 
and the whole edifice would dissolve partner- 
nership, and roll away into independent 



eh.!!!] OURCHA. 11 A 

masses, like a pile of oranges. The most 
obvious mode of accounting for these pheno- 
mena of nature, is by the supposition, that 
the blocks of hard rock were formerly imbed* 
ded in a stratum of a softer nature, which, 
yielding before the lapse of hkcs and the fury 
of the elements, crumbled down in sandy par- 
ticles to the base, and left the more durable 
portions to support tliemselves as they best 
could, and take up such poHitions as the laws 
of gravity dictated. 

During this march we crossed more than 
once the rocky bed of the picturesque river 
Betwa. On such occasions us this, as well 
as whilst traversing countries the most 
tangled, broken, and precipitous, tliat chef- 
d'oeuvre of animal creation, tlie elephant, 
most conspicuously dis])lays his superiority. 
It is wonderful to see him patiently and efiec-* 
tually surmounting obstacles, which the horse 
could not have a chance, and even ubiquitary 
man himself might desi)air, of overcoming^. 

* The penetrating reader will, doubtless, ere tliis, have disco- 
vered the Author's penchant for the elephant. lie owns * the 

I 2 



116 BUNDELCUND. [OLllL 

We now arrived at the town, situated cm 
one of the arms of this Briarean stream : it 
is of great extent, and surrounded by a stone 
wall. The principal objects in the view are 
the ancient palace, crowning an elevation in 
the centre of the town ; and a remarkably 
fine temple, which, after the usual form of 
the Bundeela muts, is ornamented with lofty 
spires. When seen through the forest at the 
distance of two miles, it reminded me in some 
degree of the cathedral of Litchfield. 

That Ourcha was formerly a place of con- 
sequence, is attested by the many interesting 
ruins which we passed, but its prosperity has 
waned with the fortunes of its chief, whose 
present possessions (in spite of his genealo- 
gical tree, which derives him in direct line 
from the ancient Bundeela monarchs of Kal- 
linger) do not bring him a revenue exceeding 
fifty or sixty thousand pounds. The present 
ruinous state of the city is fiu'ther accounted 
for by the Rajah's long alienation from it. 

soft impeachment;* and, although generally abominating the 
tribe of Pets, if ever — as he descends into the vale of old-bache- 
lorism—he should be induced to establish one, it shall be An 
Elephant. 



OtuIIL] OVRCHA. 117 

About thirty years ago, be was counselled by 
his seers, or his ministers, to quit the place, as 
unpropitious to his ardent aspirations for an 
heir to his throne, and to remove his court 
to the fort of Teary, situated at the southern 
extremity of his dominions. He followed these 
injunctions ; and such is the force of faith, 
that a bouncing burly prince immediately ap- 
peared to verify the predictions of the sages. 
The Rajah only returned to Ourcha a few 
months ago. He is a fine, venerable old man, 
and has just abdicated in favour of his man- 
monntain of a son. The warriors who formed 
his little body-guard, are active, hardy-look- 
ing fellows, well mounted and arnied, and, 
like the rest of the inhabitants of Bundelcund, 
famed for their fighting qualities — qualities 
which are likely to lie dormant for some time ; 
for, turbulent as the Bundeela chiefs have 
always been, and strong as the temptations 
still must be for one armed principality to 
commit inroads upon another, no two poten- 
tates can come to a decided feud without 
having their heads knocked together by the 



116 BUNDELCUND. IQlUL 

ftll-powerfiil interference of the Honourable 
Company. It would therefore be a praise- 
worthy adaptation of good metal^ if these 
worthies would turn their now rusting swords 
into ploughshares, for the cultivation of their 
neglected, and not naturally fruitful soil ; and 
,at the same time educate their pampered 
chargers to the more useful labours of the 
.Georgic department. 

The following three marches brought us 
gradually out of the land of roc]is and sand 
.into a tract enriched with cultivation! and 
adorned with luxuriant groves. On the second 
day we passed, on the left of the line of maicbt 
a very picturesque and baronial-like castle» 
perched on a wooded ridge, and looking down 
upon a lake nearly as extensive as that of 
Burwer Sanger* These fine pieces of water, 
peculiar to this province, and such valuable 
accessories to the scenery of India, are in no 
cases entirely natural, most of them being 
supplied with artificial embankment!;. 

Jaru nth. The Camp was pitched at the 



aLia] PAHARBB BANKA. IIP 

« 

Tillage of Paharee Banka. The country in 
the ricmity is well cultivated, and the tama- 
rind» mango, and other trees grow to a great 
fixe. Among the branches of these I disco* 
vered large flights of the beautiful bird called 
the green pigeon, many of which I shot. On 
the bare arid plains, too, the sportsmen of the 
party fell in with the rock pigeon, a very 
beautiful and delicate species, but difficult of 
•ccess* It has nothing of the pigeon but the 
feet; and the larger kind, in shape, size, 
and plumage, bears some resemblance to the 
grouse. These birds are so exceedingly wild, 
jthat sportsmen are obliged to resort to stra** 
tagem in order to get near them. One method 
consists in covering the head with a long 
white cloth, after the manner of the native 
cultivators, and walking behind a bullock 
itfained for the business. I had often worn 
out my knees and my patience in creeping 
after these vigilant objects of my sporting 
wishes, and was this day destined to be suc- 
cessful. I discovered an ill-starred couple 
who were playing the turtle apart from the 



130 . BUNDEtCUND. [Chi 111^ 

main flock ; and by the assistance of an ijh- 
tervening bush and their own all-engrossing 
employment, I contrived to get within thirty 
paces of them before they rose, when I slew 
them both at a shot. 

On the march this morning, whilst diverg- 
ing from the road with our hawks, we found 
a fine bustard on the plain. He took wing 
as we approached, and a couple of laige 
hawks were flown at him. After recomioit 
tring their gigantic opponent, however, they 
seemed afraid to engage, and came back to 
wrist. The falconers marked the bird : and, 
proceeding to camp, provided themselves with 
a series of snares — the same used by them to 
catch live birds for training their hawks — and 
returned to the spot. These they spread in 
a convenient place, a few hundred yards in 
advance of the bustard's station ; and then 
describing a wide circle, they came round to 
the rear of the bird, and by cautiously and 
slowly approaching, gradually drove the in- 
fatuated victim into the nets, where his long 



Ckllt] KAITAH. 121 

legs were soon entangled, and he became an 
easy prey. He was an immense bird of the 
kind; measured seven feet six inches from 
tip to tip of wings ; and weighed twenty- 
seven pounds and a half, twice the weight of 
a good Norfolk turkey. 

The next day being the anniversary of 
the capture of Bhurtpore, this noblest of fea- 
thered game made no bad pi6ce do r6sistanc6 
for the head of his lordship's table. 

On the 19th we crossed the river Dussaun, 
and on the 20th of Janimrt/, reached the sta- 
tion of Kaitah, where the Commander-in- 
chief reviewed the two regiments of infantry, 
and one cavalry corps, cantoned there. The 
situation of the town is sultry, from the air 
being intercepted by a considerable rocky 
eminence which half surrounds it, and the 
rays of the sun being reflected from the same. 
At 2 P.M., the therm, rose to 00^ Kaitah is 
an advanced post of the Company, pushed 
into the heart of the native principalities of 



122 BUNBELCUND. [ClUlIL 

Bundelcond^ for the usual purposes of super- 
yision and coercion. 



We halted one entire day at Kaitah, and 
on the 22 d, made a march of sixteen miles to 
the town of Chirkari ; another of the minia- 
ture royalties of Bundelcund. The Rajah 
came forth to give the embrace of welcome to 
the Commander-in-Chief, and accompanied 
us to the camp. He is very old and infirm ; 
and his grandson, a boy of twelve years old, 
is his heir apparent. He is a sharp and in- 
telligent lad, and is already, at his tender age, 
a benedict. The royal revenue of Chirkari 
amounts to about four lacs of rupees, or forty 
thousand pounds. The old man talked about 
his /want of means to supply us with suitable 
entertainment at his court, but promised a 
good day *s sport in his rumnah by way of 
succedaneiim. We returned the chief's visit 
in the afternoon. His palace, situated in the 
eehtre of tb6 town, has nothing remarkable 
about it, but the site of the city itself is ex* 
ti^emely picturesque. It is spread round the 



OkXnj * CHIRKARI. 183 

foot of a lofty rocky hill, on the Bummit of 
which the fort is situated. This latter would 
be almost impregnable by native troops, if 
the R^*ah had not — agreeable to the usual 
custom of Indian princes — neglected to com* 
plete the fortifications begun by his prede- 
cessor, which would have probably enclosed 
in their enceinte two important elevations^ 
pow without the walls, and commanding 
the citadeL The only access to the fortress 
is by a flight of steps cut in the rock, suffi- 
ciently easy of ascent for elephants. In 
viewing the surrounding country from the 
bastions of the fortress, the spectator is led, by 
the rich luxuriant appearance of the forests, 
to imagine that the soil is fruitful ; but on a 
Clearer acquaintance with these wide spread- 
ing woods he. finds that the trees, deriving 
;their sap from an arid and rocky bed, are of 
dwatfish growth, and inferior qualities. 

The next morning, a large party of sports- 
jmen was early in the field. At the entrance 
of the rumnah the elephants were left behind, 



124 BUNDELCUND. fCluni. 

apd, conducted by two young natural sons of 
the. Rajah, we soon commenced action. Our 
guides are fine handsome dashing youths : and 
were it not for the vigilant guardianship of th/^ 
Company, there is little doubt but they would, 
(instead of calmly sitting by to see theiy 
infant brother ascend the throne) seize the 
obnoxious stripling immediately on the death 
of the present incumbent, wring his neck, 
usurp the throne, and having thus far pror 
ceeded hand in hand, one would cut, t^ie: 
other's throat, and lo ! the surviver sol^ pro- 
prietor of the Raj ! For this style of royaL 
succession they have abundant precedents in : 
the history of every ancient kingdom in 
India. 

Our party had not penetrated many hun* 
dred yards into the preserve, ere we fell in 
with large herds of antelopes, spotted deer, 
and niel ghie; but we found that with a 
numerous troop of laughing and talking 
Englishmen, it was hopeless to attempt to 
approach these wild denizens of the forest. 
I^ therefore, soon parted company, and went 



Cb.ia] CHIRRARI. 125 

on a solitary cruise; but it was not a very 
lucrative one. I fired away all my cartridges 
in random shots, and when I found myself in 
the very heart of the preserve, with deer bound- 
ing past me in all direction, I had not a ball 
to expend upon them. I killed a niel ghau 
early in the day, but could not find an ele- 
phant to carry him home. Add to this, I lost 
my way, and when at length, directed by the 
reports of my companions' guns, I steered 
through the thick bushes in the direction of 
the sound, I was saluted by such voUies of 
bullets, aimed at the herds which I was driv- 
ing towards my friends, that I was quickly 
obliged to alter my course ; save up all idea 
of joining convoy, and, after some difficulty, 
piloted myself back to the elephants, by 
sunset. 

The scene of our chasse lay in an extensive 
forest spreading for many leagues over a 
plain, studded with wild groups of black 
rocks, and backed up by a picturesque range 
of well- wooded elevations. The whole jungle 
was redolent with the fragrant blossoms of 



126 BAN DA. [Clulir. 

the baubul ; and the juicy bhaire extended 
its well loaded branches for the refreshment 
of the parched hunter. 

The niel ghau, which abounds in these fo- 
rests, grows to an immense size; in somQ 
instances attaining the height of fifteen bandsi 
The limbs of this beautiful animal unite tha 
strength of the ox, with the activity and elas- 
ticity of the deer. The head is very small 
tod fine, furnished with short horns directed 
backwards, and set on a neck of prodigious 
strength. The colour of the male is a deep 
slate, whence the epithet of nkl (blue). 

Jan. 24:th> Head-quarters quitted Chirkari^ 
and after four days* marches of little interest, 
crossed the pretty river Cane, famous for its 
pebbles, and re-entered the British dominions* 
On the eastern bank we met the Nawaub 
Zoolficar Ali, who escorted his Excellency 
into the town of Banda ; where a small force 
of the Company's troops is stationed. 

The Mawaub, who has a palace near the 
town, is the younger brother and successor of 



Ok.XU»] ZOOLFICAR ALL 127 

the Nawaub Shemshere Bahauder (son of 
All Bahauder, the Mahratta conqueror of 
Bundelcund), with whom, at the cession of 
the Bundeela provinces to the Company in 
)803, the English gOTernment entered into 
a conciliatory engagement, securing to him an 
estate of forty thousand pounds per annum. 

It is related that at the capture of Banda 
by the English, the fort, which is situated on 
the opposite bank of the Cane, only fired one 
shot— as a point of honour — and that that 
one shot ended its career in the breast of a 
British officer. 

The present Nawaub is a short stout man, 
of remarkably fair complexion, and good- 
natured countenance : his age is about twenty- 
nine ; although from his corpulence — which 
with natives of rank is generally commen- 
surate with tlieir means of supporting it-** 
and from the usual dignified and pos6 manner 
of the Mussulman, he appears much older. 
He is a great admirer and follower of English 
manners and customs, and his adoption of 
them corresponds >yith bis Mahomedaii edu- 



128 BAND A. [Chilli* 

cation, about as aptly as do his English top- 
boots with the splendid keemcab tunic and 
cashmere shawl, which form his usual cos- 
tume. 

His Anglomania, it is said, costs him an^ 
nually many thousands of rupees, which 
glide into the pockets of the knowing ones of 
the Cawnpore turf; and at the price of which 
he enjoys the distinction of entering two or 
three unsuccessful horses every season ; and 
secures to himself from his English friends 
the enviable tide of a d — d good fellow ! 

He led us, with evident pride, through his 
stud and racing stables, and amongst a host 
of lanky weeds, shewed us some few promising 
colts. Among his stallions he has many Eng- 
lish horses of note, whose names have been 
well known even at Newmarket and Doncas- 
ter. In his carriage stables he paraded about 
fifteen pair of respectable horses; he has a 
vast variety of English vehicles ; twenty ele- 
phants ; and a numerous troop of body guards, 
well mounted, and accoutred after the fashion 
of the Company's cavalry. With this exten- 



Oh. III.] ZOOLFIGAR ALL 129 

sive establislimcnt, and a whole colony of 
poor relations IWing upon him, it is surpris- 
ing that the good-natured Nawaub can keep 
his head above water. 

2Qth. Halted at Banda. In the morning 
a review of a native infantry corps ; and in 
the evening a grand dinner with his highness 
Zoolficar Ali, at which he made a special 
petition that the ladies of the party should be 
present. He received Lord Combcrmcrc on 
the threshold with a French embrace, and 
then led the way into a well furnished draw- 
ing-room, where, during the half hour pre- 
ceding the repast, he stood up and conversed 
freely and fluently with the men; but did 
not venture to address the ladies. The Na- 
waub's evening costume was a shawl coat, 
buttoned ii TAnglaise, and richly laced down 
the breast ; with an embroidered velvet skull- 
cap in place of a turban : the ill-assorting 
top-boots still held their place, and his nose 
was decorated with a pair of English silver 
spectacles. A profusion of the Scrap-book 

Vol. II. K 



l30 BANDA. [Ch-Ili. 

Iribe was spread upon the table ; and there were 
as many sofas to lounge upon, and tabouifets 
to tumble over, as are to be found in the most 
approved drawing-rooms in England. 

Dinner being at length announced by a 
train of liveried servants, our host — ^without 
taking the slightest notice of his Iddy guests 
— led the way into a spacious salon where a 
table was spread for about forty jpersons. An 
excellent dinner was laid out in the Calcutta 
fashion, and there was a good supply of claret 
and other European wines. Amongst the 
dishes I was somewhat surprised to recognize 
a ham, and a very palpable group of saus&ges 
— portions of the unclean beast on the board 
of a follower of the Prophet ! 

Contrary to the usual custom of our Mus- 
sulman hosts, Zoolficar Ali ate, without the 
least scruple or reserve, of the dishes which 
were common to us all, and seemed to take it 
as a compliment when his lordship helped 
him to some pillau. My station at table was 
directly opposite to * the chair ; ' and I could 
not forbear smiling as I watched his fiitile 



r!h.in.3 ZDOLFICAR ALL 131 

attempts to prevent that most awkward of 
instruments, an iBnglish silver fork, from 
turning in his hand ; and I thought that, in 
his perplexity, he was sore tempted to have 
recourse to the more primitive agency of his 
fingers — after the example of poor * Hajji 
Baba in England/ As I was pursuing my 
rather rude observation, he suddenly caught 
iuy eye, and very nearly converted my smile 
into laughter long and loud, by giving me a 
stedfkiit, penetrating look, and saying in a 
sharp tone, * Glass vaine ! ' I salaamed, filled 
my glass, and the orthodox Islamite drank to 
toe in water. 

llie entertainment was conducted through- 
out in an orderly and respectable manner ; a 
choice set of dancing girls were allowed to 
dance before the party during the dessert, and 
the evening was concluded by a display of 
fireworks. 

The Nawaub's late brother, Shemshere Ba- 
hauder, was by no means so respectable a 
character, or so conscientious an observer of 
th(S inculcations of the Koran, as his suc- 

K2 



132 BUNDELCUND. ' [Ch. Ill, 

cesser. He was elected honorary member of 
^n English dragoon mess, and there, and 
elsewhere, indulged in large libations of the 
forbidden juice. Constant communication 
with the English confirmed him as a mauvais 
l^ujet; for he cared not what his company 
was, so that it was European. 

Jan. 29th. Dispatched my heavy baggage 
and servants to Allahabad by the direct route ; 
and made arrangements to leave Head-quar- 
ters on the 1st prox., after having seen the 
famous fortress of Kallinger. We left Banda 
this morning; and the next day the camp 
was pitched in a wide, cultivated plain, eleven 
miles from the above-named stronghold. At 
this distance the vast fortified rock, like an 
inland Gibraltar, is distinctly visible ; and 
beyond it, in faint perspective, is discerned 
the great range of lofty table-land, extend- 
ing from the mountain fort of Rhotasghur 
on the Sone river, more than half across cen- 
tral India. 

In the evening I took my pony and my 



ch. III.] AN hour's sport. 133 

gun, and rambled among the neighbouring 
ravines, in whose tangled gorges the crowing 
of the partridges held out a tempting invita- 
tion to the sportsman. I had an hour's capital 
sport, killing a good bag of partridges, quail, 
and rock-pigeon. At the first report of my 
gun the plain was alive with niel ghie and 
deer, great herds of them scouring away in 
every direction. With the hope of taking 
one of these wild creatures by surprise, I kept 
one barrel loaded with ball, and on my way 
home my expectations were realized. Whilst 
walking along the bottom of a ravine, a couple 
of red deer, roused by my dog — who had been 
playing the truant at some distance— came 
at full speed along the brow towards me. I 
dived into a bush ; they passed me at about 
thirty paces; I let the lady-doe pass; and 
the buck answered my shot by a convulsive 
bound, rolling down the flank of the ravine, 
almost to my feet. The ball had severed 
the spine. 

Jan. 31st. By daybreak, as usual, our can- 



134 BUNDELCUND, [Ph. III. 

vas city was taken up by the roots ; carrip4 
over eleven miles of space, and replanted 
under the rock of Kallinger. It was my last 
march with the Head-quarters camp. About 
a mile from Kallinger, we encountered a nu- 
merous cavalcade, which proved to be that of 
the Rajah Bukt Singh of Adjeeghur, another 
formidable rock-fortress, twenty miles to the 
south-eastward. This place fell to the ipri- 
tish, after a desperate resistance, and a con? 
siderable loss on our side, in 1809 ; and it^ 
capture was signalized by a most barbarian 
act on the part of a relative of the Zemindar. 
This old man was sent to the zenana to pre- 
pare the fair inmates for their removal with 
their chief ; and the messenger not returning, 
the house was broken into ; when it was disr 
covered that-^-instigated by a dread of the 
besiegers' violence — he had cut the throats of 
all the women and children, and, very pro- 
perly, crowned the catastrophe by cutting his 
own. Tragedies such as these are of common 
occurrence in the history of Indian sieges ; 
but tjio most approved, and certainly the 



Oh.|I(.] KALLINOER. 136 

moat complete metliod of preserving the ze- 
nana inviolate was by the summary process 
of blowing it into the air by means of mines, 
prepared witli providential foresiglit by the 
besieged, and exploded by some devoted ser- 
vant at a preconcerted signal. 

Our camp occupied a tolerably level space 
of ground, dotted with bushes and rocks, 
within three hundred yards of the foot of the 
KaUinger rock ; nor could a more favourable 
position have becin chosen to display to 
advantage the grand and awful proportions 
of this formidable stronghold. 

The hill on which KaUinger stands is said 
to be nine hundred and sixty feet above the 
plain ; it stands out in isolated grandeur from 
the main range, from which it is separated by 
a deep, rocky, and thickly-wooded valley. 
The flanks of the mountain are scarped almost 
perpendicularly on all sides, and are thickly 
clothed with stunted copse-wood, with the ex- 
ception of a space of about fifty feet from the 
summit, which presents a natural wall of bare 
rocky scarcely needing the solid curtains and 



136 BUNDELCUND. [Ch.111. 

bastions of stone sunnounting it^ and con- 
fonning in their curves and angles exactly to 
the shape of the hill. The circumference of 
the battlements is computed at six miles. 
The only access to the fort is by a stair-road, 
as at Gwalior ; and Kallinger being at least 
as high again as the latter place, the Mcent 
is proportionately more fatiguing. I rode my 
mountain-mule the greater part of the way, 
and was just an hour from base to summit. 
It is a curious fact, that the surface of the 
rock, whose sides are so rugged and steep, 
presents a nearly level table-land; and the 
like peculiarity is observable throughout the 
mountain-fortresses of Bundelcund. There is 
smooth space, sprinkled with turf, of sufficient 
extent for the manoeuvres of a regiment, or a 
game at cricket ; and there are the remains 
of a capital carriage-road three miles and a 
^ half in circuit. The English officers of the 
garrison, until. within these few years, had 
buggies brought to the summit on the heads 
of porters, and enjoyed their evening drive 
mne hundred feet above the plain. Hill forts 



Ch. III.] KALLINOER. 137 

usually fail in that most important of muni- 
tions, water; but Kallinger, in addition to 
several spacious tanks, possesses one well 
which, for aught that is known to the con- 
trary, may reach the antipodes— for it has 
never been fathomed. 

It appears as though Providence had de- 
signed this province for the last refuge of 
Indian independence, so perfect in their de« 
fensive properties are all these natural bul- 
warks spread throughout the district. It is 
certain that, though overrun for the space of 
fourteen years by the countless hosts of the 
Mahrattas, Bundelcund was never fairly sub- 
jected; and that the same Kallinger that 
worsted the repeated and obstinate attacks of 
the thitherto successful Ali Bahauder, op- 
posed as brilliant a resistance to even British 
arms, and upheld the standard of liberty long 
after the whole of the surrounding country 
had succumbed to the pertinacious ambition 
of the Company. 

The English army invested this fort in 1810, 
and, getting possession of a small conical hill, 



)$8 BRITISH SIEGE OF BLALLINGER. [G^pf. 

a luod qf natural outwork, palled Kallingeri, 
greeted their batteries thereon. Although the 
distance of twelve hundred yards from the 
nearest point pf the battlements was almost 
too great for the effecting of a good breach, 
the guns, directed against an angle, brought 
down consideirable masses of masonry ; and 
the storming party, encouraged by these ap- 
pearances, rushed down from their position, 
and commenced their arduous progress across 
the craggy and tangled gorge separating 
the lesser from the main rock. A murderous 
fire was poured upon the ascending troops, 
^|id huge blocks of granite rolled destruction 
through their ranks. Nevertheless, they per- 
severed, and on approaching the work, what 
was their consternation, when they disco- 
vered that the brickwork which had been bat- 
tered down, had only served as a facing to 
the bluff scarped rock I The breach was to- 
tally impregnable, and the English were forced 
back with severe loss. What, however, could 
npt be effected by lead and steel, was speedily 
accomplished by all-conquering gold — the 



Gk.i;L] SHERE I^HAN'S SIEGE. 189 

sinews of diplomacy as well as of war — and 
the fortress was surrendered by negotiation 
shortly after our failure. 

^ I stood on the frowning brow of th^ 
positively inaccessible angle which formed 
^he point of attack^ my bosom swelled with 
emotions of pride at the determined hardihood 
which alone could have brought my country^ 
mpn to the hopeless exploit. I gazed from tlie 
diazy h^^ight upon the mist-covered jungle 
beloWy until I almost fancied I heard the loud 
hu^z^ of the impetuous storming party ; and 
I felt that, on th^ * coigne of vantage ' where I 
stood, I could, with a troop of twenty men 
^nd as many pld women, and with no other 
arms than the huge stones which lay in piles 
around me, have made good my Thermopylae 
against t^m of thousands and hundreds of 
thousands I 

The antiquity of Kallinger is, like its famous 
well, unfjBttbomable. Mahomedan historians 
m^jie mention of Rajahs of Kallinger as far 
bapk as a* d. 1008. Jt was taken by the Elm- 
perqr S^ere J^h^n about the middle of the 



140 KALLINGER. [Ch. III. 

sixteenth century; but its fall was accom- 
plished by the treachery of the garrison, and 
the conqueror lost his life in the assault^ by 
the explosion of a magazine in one of the 
batteries. 

The forests, which spread over the vallies 
and hills to the south and east of Kallinger, 
abound in game of every species. The gigan- 
tic elk, so rare in India, the leopard and 
hyaena are frequently fallen in with and shot 
by the oflScers of the three companies who 
form the garrison of this sequestered fortress. 
There is little danger in the pursuit of the 
latter animals, even on foot, for they never 
attempt resistance, except when they are too 
much wounded to escape. 

My ddk from Kallinger to Allahabad was 
duly laid for the evening of this day, Feb. 
1st. At [the latter town it is my intention 
to embark on the Ganges, and sail down its 
stream as far as Dinapore, to give a meeting 
to a young relative who has just donned the 
Honourable Company's uniform. At 9 p.m., 



Ch.III.I LAST DAY IN CAMP. 141 

my palankeen was reported ready : the bear- 
ers were girding up theit loins, and. jabbering 
about khanah and peisa*, their never- vary* 
ing topics ; the Mussalgees replenishing and 
lighting their torches ; the broad-shouldered, 
fierce-looking, bare-legged Burkindass twirled 
his moustaches, braced his buckler, and 
shouldered his sheathed sword ; my faithful 
surdar-bearer bustled about, arranging pil- 
lows and reziesf — (Oh for an established ortho- 
graphy of current Indian words ! for I believe 
I spell them differently as often as they occur) 
—the bangyburdarsj, after nicely balancing 
their patarras, had already jogged forward ; 
and syces, khitmutgars, hookahburdars, and 
other domestic ministers with hard titles and 
easy offices, were craning about the tent-door, 
and each in their turn — though previously 
furnished with orders, with the view to save 
trouble at the last moment — advancing with 
closed hands and open mouths, to get the 
Sahib's hookam about horses, and baggage, 

* Food and payment. t Quilted bed-covering. 

t Baggage porters. 



142 KALLlNGfeR; (dullh 

and hookahs; or to insintiate 4 whispered 
prayer for buckfthees ; or to put in a * humbly 
sheweth,' calligraphized by some erudite camp 
sircar, setting forth some petty grievSinee, or 
petitioning for discharge or increase of pay, 
backed by well feigned patiic at the prospect 
df a Calcutta climate ! 

As I tarried for a moment before the door, 
to deliver a parting injunction to my liiajor- 
domo, a cjrowd of my private bearer* suddenly 
set up a combined yell of compliiiiit, in which 
I could just collect that the Khansamah, 
undeir the influence of opium, had with his 
Mussulman fists battered the whole body cor- 
porate of the Hindoo officials^— the defendant 
in return alleging that he had been wrought 
by their gaulee* to commit the assault. 

After striving for a few moments to make 
but the pros and cons of the case, it ended 
by my sending the whole party to Jehanum, 
bundling into my palankeen, and drowning 
their complaints in the fchanted refrain df my 
ddk bearers ; whose monotonous chorus, as- 

♦ Abuse. 



CKIilJ LAST DAY IN CAMP. l43 

sisted by the cradle-like motion of my equi- 
page, lulled me, in the course of time, into a 
comfortable sleep. Thus ended my last day 
in camp : and much did I regret my canvas 
tabernacle, with its diurnal change of site 
and prospect ; the healthful daily journey, 
anticipating the sun ; the busy bustle of the 
line of march ; the diverging ramble from the 
direct route with chetahs, greyhounds, or fal- 
cons ; the amusing visits to royal personages 
at theur glittering courts, and the still more 
exciting interviews with royal tigers in their 
jungle realms ; the half-sporting, half-recon- 
noitring stroll in the afternoon, with gun or 
pencil equally ready for its object; the repast 
rendered more savoury by exercise, and di- 
gested to the * interposing puff ' of the cozy, 
dozy hookah ; the evening whist-parties, 
given in routine by the heads of departments 
of our migratory microcosm, and graced by 
the presence of ladies — where camp politics 
were discussed, or well digested plans were 
arranged for the morrow's chasse ; the con- 
stant and endless variety of climes and coun- 



144 DAK JOURNEY. [Ch. III. 

tries, customs and characters, scenery, and 
incident — in a word, the roving, errant, 
gypsy-like life, in which novelty trips up the 
heels of ennui, and adventure casts out the 
blue devils engendered by an enervating 
climate. 

But I left myself asleep in my palankeen, 
at 9 P.M., on the Ist of February. At sunrise 
on the 2nd, I passed through the pretty town 
of Turrowah ; crossed the Jumna at the vil- 
lage of Mow at 8 P.M. ; and reached Allaha- 
bad at gunfire on the morning of the 3rd, thus 
accomplishing, in about thirty-two hours, the 
distance that the Head-quarters camp will 
consume ten days in performing. I only 
halted one hour on the road, to make a meal 
of tea and biscuit : my banqueting-hall was 
an umbrageous mango grove ; the roof of my 
palankeen formed a convenient table ; and 
my Hebe was a garrulous old woman, who, 
* for a consideration,' purveyed for me, from 
the neighbouring hamlet, an earthen-pot of 
goat's milk, which had been boiled just too 



Ch.IIL] ALLAHABAD. 145 

late to prevent its turning sour. At Allaha- 
bad I was hospitably received by Captain 
Mein^ the Assistant Commissary General^ 
who introduced me to the budgerow destined 
for my transport to Calcutta ; and in which, 
in the course of the day, all my goods and 
chattels were safely deposited. The shore 
of the Ganges, for many hundred yards 
under the steep bank on which Captain 
Mein's house is situated, is lined with the 
budgerows, horse-boats, office-boats and cook- 
boats, forming the fleet of the Head-quar- 
ters ; and at the mast head of each officer's 
galley flaunts a gay-coloured, distinguishing 
flag. 

The important, and, to the Hindoos, holy 
city of Allahabad is eligibly situated at the 
confluence of the Ganges and Jumna; and 
the fort, a place of great extent and strength, 
commands the navigation of both rivers. The 
emperor Acbar founded the new city in 1581, 
and his handy-work came into the clutches 
of the English in 1765. Here Lord Clive 
received from Shah Aulum of Delhi — on con- 

VoL. IL L 



14(1 ALLAH ABA0. iCh.lth 

ditiong of protection — the legal possession of 
the province of Bengal. The Company laid 
out vast sums of rupees on the fortifications 
of this important stronghold^ and made it the 
grand dep6t of military stores and provincial 
justice for the upper districts of India. I 
had not been long at Allahabad ere I re^ 
ceived a message from Doorjun Saul, the ex* 
usurper of Bhurtpore, who is now a state 
prisoner in the fort. In a dh^llee of fruits, 
vegetables^ and preserves, he insinuated — ^like 
Cleopatra's asp— a letter, in which he be- 
sought me, as Mousahib * to the Lord^general, 
to visit him, and to exert my influence at the 
British court for his liberation — an invitation 
which I politely declined, preferring a jaunt 
to the grand fair— now in celebration under 
the walls of the fort — to being made the an* 
ditor of complaints, for which I could admi- 
nister no balm. 

The fair — in fair company, for such I en-* 
joyed on the occasion — was worth seeing. 
There was more chaffering and bargainings 

. * Aide-de-camp. 



ekiii.) 



■ &HBABR ON THE GANGES. 



HI 



tod les« fighting and love-making, than are 
Been in England in like assemblies : but 
after Hurdwar fair, Allahabad had nothing of 
novelty to shov. We passed down the whole 
street of booths, driving hard bargains with 
the retailers of trash: ; and, amongst other 
valuables, I purchased for one rupee a whole 
mythdogy of Hindoo deities. 




Feb. ith. At II a.m. 1 stepped into the 
elumsy, ricketty budgerow, in which, with 
the special intervention of Pi:pvidence, I may 



148 VOYAGE DOWN THE OANOE8. [Chilli. 

hope to navigate seven hundred and fifty 
miles, without becoming food for alligators. 
My palankeen and half a dozen domestics, 
with a posse of dogs and goats, were esta- 
blished as outside passengers, on the roof, 
or poop of the vessel : the maungee* gave 
the word for weighing; the huge bamboos 
cramped the top-heavy ark from the shore; 
she swung heavily round ; and after carrying 
away the noses of several figure-heads, and 
jamming in the jilmils f of two or three sister 
budgerows, my gallant tub rolled gracefully 
away, like a swan — out of water — ^followed by 
a favouring breeze and the hearty execra- 
tions of the crews of the injured vessels. My 
little fleet consisted of this my private yacht, 
a smaller boat for servants' baggage and kit- 
chen, and a little dinghee, or Ganges wherry* 
The budgerow, though unwieldy and ungo- 
vernable in narrow winding streams, and high 
winds, is really, — considering its primitive 
construction, for it appears to have been 
built afiter Jason's model — ^very well calcu- 

♦ Boafswaixv t Venetian blihcLs* 



Ch.IIL] THE BUDOEROW* 14d 

lated for Ganges' navigation. The accommo- 
dation between decks is even superior to that 
of a .£rigate*-*my sitting-room being seven* 
teen feet and a half by fifteen feet» and nearly 
eight feet high, and the sleeping cabin, more 
abaft, about twelve feet square. In addition 
to two large square sails, it is furnished with 
fourteen long sweeps. The voyages are al- 
ways made by daylight, the numerous shoals 
of the river rendering night navigation dan- 
gerous. Towards sunset the budgerow is, there- 
fore, run ashore in some favourable spot, and 
the dtodies — as the boatmen are called, from 
the word d&n, an oar — instantly set about 
making their little temporary ovens on the 
bank, to bake their chup&tties, and concoct 
their curry. The crews are of either sect, 
Mussulman or Hindoo ; the former are, per- 
haps, the more able-bodied seamen, and 
Btauncher at the oar; but they cook their 
meals on board, and smother the passen- 
ger-^already stewed by 90** of Fahrenheitr— 
with their savoury steams. The Hindoos, 
on the contrary, are forbidden by their reli- 



150 VOYAGE DOWN THE RANGES. [Cll-IIl. 

gion to perform these rite© on boardi solac: 
ing themselves with parched grain and sweetj 
meats, until the anchoring of the v^sels 
gives them the advantages of a legitimate 

4 

feast. Then, indeed do these siufferers for 
j^ligion's sake make up for lopt time. An 
JGnglishman who pecks at his three or four 
meals per diem, would ^tare tq see the mounr 
tain of rice devoured at a fitting by these 
hjptrd-working and hungry disciples of Brab? 
mab. . 

The ddndies are generally fine, stout and 
sleek figures* In rowing they stand uprigbtj 
advancing and retiring two or three steps at 
every stroke ; and lightening their labour, as 
well as preserving the measure, by a song 
and chorus. 

The Ganges, though certainly magnificent 
as a river, from the great width of its stream 
and the fineness of its water, must yield the 
palm of picturesque beauty to the Thames, 
the Liffy, or the Rhine. Its banks present an 
unvaried sand- wall on one hand ; and on the 
Other, are low, flat, and unbroken, This is> 



CLIIL] MIR2AP0RE. 161 

however, speaking generally; for there are 
pomts and headlands on the great river, which, 
invested as they are with all the scenic rjcqui- 
sites of wood, water, and architecture, afford 
brilliant subjects for the pencil. Almost 
every sand-bank — and the Ganges is replete 
with them— rfonns the basking place of some 
huge alligator. It is not unusual to see a 
group of ten or twelve of these monsters lying 
BO motionless, in their enjoyment of the sun, 
that an unaccustomed eye would mistake 
them for lo^ of timber. On the near ap- 
proach of a boat they tumble clumsily into 
the water and disappear. There are two 
species of the alligator, the most common of 
which, the long-nosed, preys only upon fish. 
But the short^headed mugger, which grows 
to the length of thirty feet, extends his tastes 
^o flesh, human or bestial. 

About 4 P.M., on the 0th, I sailed past Mir- 
Stipore, a large town, situated on tlie right 
bank of the river. It drives a busy trade in 
Cotton and silk, and is famous for tlie manu- 



162 GANGES. [Cai.111. 

facture of carpeting. The bank of the stream 
is adorned with several fine ghauts and tem- 
ples : a little below the town, four or five 
handsome houses mark the Civil Station ; and 
a line of more humble bungalows, the Can- 
tonments. 

The ghauts — flights of steps to the river — 
of which every town on the Granges boasts of 
three or four, always present an animated 
scene to the aquatic passenger. At all hours 
of the day, but more particularly in the morn- 
ing, they are thronged with busy crowds of 
Hindoos, who are certainly the most cleanly 
people in the world. The Brahmin may be 
seen standing up to his knees in the holy 
stream, with depressed head, and hands in 
the attitude of prayer ; or carefully washing 

the symbolical thread, the badge of his sacred 
caste. Women, with their graceful garments, 
and still more graceful persons, and with their 
well-poised water-vessels on their heads, glide 
tip and down the steps in execution of their 
duty, the drudgery of the menage. It does 
one's heart good to see these elegant creatures 




cheerfully performing their domestic offices, 
and rendering even labour graceful. You may 
talk of your Frenchwoman's walk — it may be 
pret^ — indeed, it is so ; but is it natural ? 
She goes pitter-patting along as though she 
feared at each step to burst her slioe. My 
Indian daughter of nature has no shoe to 
buret ; but she plants a very pretty bare foot 
with precision, yet lightness ; and floats past, 
unencumbered with the weighty vase, which 
her slender neck seems almost too fragile to 
support. 



154 . GANGES. [Ch.ni. 

A little apart from the town and the public 
haunts of man, females, singly or in pairs, 
may be seen stealing down to the river, like 
Musidora, to bathe their ' fervent limbs in the 
refreshing flood;' like her,^ unconscious of 
any treacherous Damon, after a hasty glance 
up the bank and along the shore, they disen- 
gage themselves in an instant from their 
simple garment, and plunge into the stream. 

This dress of the women consists of but one 
piece of cloth, the sarree ; it is fastened round 
the waist, and thrown over the head and 
across the bosom. Simple though it be, this 
attire is infinitely more graceful, and even 
more decent, than the evening costume of the 
belles of more sophisticated regions. 
- I have often been amused by, and marvelled 
a.t, Ihe total absence of all visible sympathy ot 
gallantry between the Hindoo men and women 
in public. In Europe, on occasions like these 
conventions on the Ghaut, there would doubt- 
less be free scope given to badinage, ribaldry, 
and practical jokes; but the orderly HindoQ 
plods through his prayers and ablutims per* 



Ph^Iiq . CHUNAR. 165 

fectly indiBtrait by the vicinity of his fair 
neighbour! whom h^ suffers to raise the pon< 
derous water-vessel to her head, without 
dreaming of offering assistance, 

Feb. 7th. At 3 p.m., passed the town and 
fortress of Chunar. The appearance of this 
place is very striking ; and its situation, on a 
bluff rock jutting far into the river, and com* 
inaading its navigation, makes it a formidable 
toll-bar on this great high road of military 
and commercial communication between Beur 
gal and the upper provinces. This strong- 
hold has been the scene of many sieges and 
battles. In 1675, it held out against a Mogul 
army for six months ; and in 1764, it surren- 
dered to the English, after having repulsed 
theiu in. a night attack. The fort of Chunar 
ts the prison of a Mahratta rebel of rank» and 
the Chels^ of European invalids ; and if thq 
^ne i&( Qot speedily emancipated from his 
chains,, and the others from all sublunary— or 
rather sub-solar — maladies, I shall never 
mor^ put faith in the dissolyiug pow^ns of 



156 GANGES, [ai.ni. 

heat ; for this bare, bright rock must be the 
hottest spot in the world. The natural pro* 
ductions of Chunar are its fine free-stone, and 
famous tobacco. I passed the town without 
landing, sending the small boat ashore to cater 
for provisions. 

This lonely, lazy, lounging aquatic expedi- 
tion, appears to me somewhat monotonous-— 
though not ungrateful — after the constant 
action, and bustling variety of ^ life in camp/ 
It is some days since I have heard my own 
voice, except in the necessary laconic order9» 
to my native attendants : my pretty apanielj^ 
Rustem, with his insinuating wriggle and elo- 
quent whine, seems, indeed, as if he only 
wanted the gift of utterance, to say a great 
deal ; but his visits to his master being regu- 
lated more by appetite than duty, he only 
makes his appearance in the parlour about 
the time that the cook-boat runs alongside- 
preferring a romp on deck with the goat 
to any other less mercurial society. The 
scuffling attacks of the one and the repel- 
lent butts of the other come as distinctly 



Ch-IIIJ THE VOYAGE. 167 

home to my senses through the reverberat- 
ing medium of the thin roof, as though I 
were an ocular witness of their gambols. The 
hours float past as smoothly and slowly as 
the stream of the unruffled and somewhat 
dilatory Ganges ; and my faith in my own 
fund of resources is sometimes grievously 
shaken by a longing for the dinner hour, 
prompted more by ennui than hunger. Yet 
there is something of luxury and comfort in 
thus gliding through space with so little trou- 
ble to oneself, and in the feeling that you are 
wending rapidly towards your destination, 
whilst engaged in your usual pursuits and 
avocations. I look round my little floating 
home with a self-hugging complacency ; and 
when I am fairly ensconced in my deep easy 
chair, with my slippered feet on the sill of 
the open window; my novel, my book of 
topographical reference, my houkah and my 
sherbet, I would not barter my cozy solitude 
and the moving panorama constantly before 
me, for ally pleasure or scene which would 
involve the necessity of rising from my seat. 



168 BENARES. [Clunr; 

Feb. 6th. At ten o'clock this mornings the 
great city of Benares hove in sight. I therefore 
ordered my chair, my chattah *, and my tele-^ 
scope upon deck, and during the hour which 
was occupied in sailing past this Indian Ba- 
bylon, I found ample amusement and interest 
in the busy scene which the Granges' bank 
daily presents at this hour. Great masses of 
building crowd, one below another, down to 
the water's edge : splendid modem palaces^ 
gaunt and deserted ruins, Hindoo temples, 
Mahometan mosques, spacious ghauts alive 
with moving myriads of bathers; fat Brah« 
mins, lean fakirs, hobbling and squabbling 
beldames, plump and taper damsels, all 
seemed to pass in review before me ; and I 
was scarcely tired of laughing and admiring, 
sketching and spying, ere I found myself at 
the Raj Ghaut, where I gave orders to shorten 
dail and' drop anchor. 

A buggy, sent for me by Mr. Hamilton, the 
Magistrate, was in waiting ; I jumped into it 
and drove to the splendid mansion of Sir 

* Laige umbrella. 



Oh. mo BBNARE8. 160 

Frederic Hamilton, (the collector of Be- 
nare8,)-H»ituated near the cantonincnts, and 
about five miles from the river — where I was 
most hospitably entreated during two days. 
Of the towA I had only a cursory view. The 
streets are narrow and dirty, crowded from 
mom till night with tribes of fakirs, proces- 
sionSy horses^ elephants, Brahminee bulls and 
Brahminee marriages. In this holy head- 
quarters of Hindooism, the most remarkable 
and prominent edifice is the great musjed of 
Aurungzebe,*— whose lofty minars seem to look 
down with contempt upon the Lilliputian 
crowds of Hindoo muts within view of its 
proud dome. How galling must the Muez- 
zin's call be to the ears of the five hundred 
thousand followers of Brahmah, who form the 
chief population of Benares^. 

In the English cantonments, a house was 
pointed out to me in which Mr. Cherry, the 
Resident, and three other English civil-ser- 



* At BenarcB is the famous Vidalain, or Hindoo CoUc^o; where, 
among other well-established poiutn of Ncionce, the studejitfi are 
Inftructed that the sun revolvei round the earth. 



160 BENABES^/^^'^^^'^^ ItffiA 

yants were — ^in 1799--^)utchered by t>ie<jMdi4* 
saries of Vizier Ali, the Ex-Nawanb of Otrfwa 
The traitors seized the occasion of wi'i^imAi^ 
cable visit to attempt the massacje bf hH 
the hated British at this station; and Idi^ 
would, doubtless, have fully succeeded ill 
their bloody designs, had not one'ge&tlM 
man made his escape, and throwing bimseSf 
upon a horse, galloped at full speed to* ttB^ 
cavalry cantonments of Sultanporieh^ight 
miles from Benares — ^turned out a sqdiifdro^ 
which was fortunately at drill, and'r^tdrA^d 
with it within the hour, and in time to %avlft 
many of our countrymen's lives. The ^^^n^ol 
of this reinforcement was most opportune ftt? 
Mr. Davis, the judge^ When this gentleinan'^B 
house was beset by the murderers, he sent 
his family by a spiral turret staircase to tte 
roof of the building, and when his retreat ^8 
discovered, defended himself on the narrb# 
escalier for half an hour, with no better wefti 
pon than a hog-spear. » 

On the evening of the 9M, accompanied hf 



CklU] 8P0RTIN0 INTELLIGENCE. 161 

a very special round of beef, and an odorife- 
rous dhally of fruits and vegetables, I re- 
embarked; and, at daybreak, got under weigh 
for Dinapore. The wind was strong, and 
so inreterately in our teeth, that sails and 
oars and current were no match for it. The 
budgerow^ however, has yet another method 
of locomotion, namely tracking. A rope is 
fastened to the mast-head, and the crew, 
jumping overboard like so many frogs, swim 
to shore, and drag the vessel along the banks, 
until a favourable turn in the river or the 
wind brings them all on board again. 

Received this day a packet from Head- 
quarters, iuclosing a letter from Deyra, giving 
an interesting account of a tiger-hunt. The 
correspondent was the same gentleman who, 
with my friend and myself, slew the tigress 
and cubs, near that town, in last April. As 
thpre is a plentiful dearth of log-matter on 
the river, I shall— with due apologies to the 
writer for rendering his letter immortal by 
smuggling it into this important work — take 
leave to subjoin an extract. * Having ob- 

VoL. II. M 



BESASES. [CE-lii 

I |7S»— butehcnd br the enisi 
miK of ToKT AIl ibe £x-Xs«aab of Oade. 
Tkf tiwBim sctxEd ike occasion of an ama.- 
caUe TSBt to ut^qit tbe massacie of all 
tfe haicd Bntkk at diK stadtm; ami tfa^ 
woahi. <in«hilp«w, h»e &Ily £<Kceeded ia 
Aek Hoodw dcaen^^ had ntK one gentle- 
mam ^afc ke ecape, aad tbiDvine kimE^ 
^pm a kiMse, caDoped at fidl speed to tlie 



■ ftttaOMieK- at diflU and l e tm acd 
I tfce hoKT, aad in tnae to sne 

c'tUs leiafiwrfmt «as maa oppmfam e ftr 




CKIII.] SPORTING INTELLlOENCr ICl 

a very special round of beef, aui. ai ^lii-mi!- 

rous dhally of fruits and vejKHL^ife t?- 

embarked; and, at daybreak- ^t xi-irr ^ftn^ii 

for Dinapore. The wind ^ie- ^^n^ uui 

so inveterately in our teeiL. uaa aiLr aid 

oars and current were no maici. >r • :. V}ui 

budgcrow, however, has ye; an'iutf aHlind 

of locomotion, nainelv tracKLis- *.. no** is 

fastened to the xnast-lieaL lu^ iiit -n-w, 

jumping overl>oard like sc uour isrirrv. ^wim 

to shore, unci drag the veage: Jiuiit'n* fismks, 

until a favovira\>le turn ii na- tt^-t nv tlit: 

wind brinf^s tlieiii all oi: ufior. .oaui. 

Receiveil tliis dav i. lURist rrini Heail- 

■ 

quarters, iuelosing akoHrffliiiLjj#:yr:i, triviiiir 
an iuteresting accoun: nu awr-hiiut. Th* 
corresi^oiiclciit vas tiiif »ib»* ;awirliMiiaii who, 
with my IViend aKinnfiuL -fftw tlu: ti-n-'- 
and e\i\>», i\ear tkr iDpil a iartt April. A- 
there i» o. plemnu ytatm of liiu-niiiittr uii 
the river, I sisiif-«!ik <ijji: apolo'^ii - tn tin- 
writer for r^xesm 'm UtiUzY iiiiiunn.:il !•> 
Bnmg^lin^ ^ ™"*« iinpi,rr:iut w.m'Iv— «i»'^' 
leave to a&iw an extract. • ll.tMiit;- "'" 



Vov- II. ^, 



J6SS APORTINQ INTBLMflEMOK; rOhUl. 



■tftmad pretty certain iiitelligei«;b that a, tiger 
kfni t^ken up his tempbrary abode in th« 
thidk wood jungle about the hUl ef Kalunga^ 
a party of fpur qf u8, assisted by two or thrM 
ftatiTe yelnnteer?, det^nnined to lally out io 
qQ«&t QjP him. Having so elephMits, we pro* 
ipeeded on foot to the spot indicated at his 
lurking plaqet and. after beating about for 
^owe time without diicoyering htm, wo eUroUed 
down the hii). tracking hnn by bit footmaxlcft; 
Srvkine we« in £ront. and I a few yw^dt be^^ 
bind him. whf n suddenly fUid without the 
slightest warning the tiger ipmng &oia # 
liiicket, and seized in hi* jawp a CkNnkah 
seapoy, who was close to iJ^«— , , A natiye 
policeinan. who wa«» at the leapoy'i elbow, 
fired his matchlocik, when the tiger inntaetly 
dropped bis yietiro, and made at him. Ew* 
kine, who all this time had stood firm aa a 
j?ock, watching his opportunity, now «le^>p«d 
up ; and. as the animal wi^s in the aet of seisr 

ing the second mau, within three paces of 
himself, fired bis piece ; the b^U took effect 
in the tiger's back, and he dropped 4ead cm 



»»«b] o^avpoRE. 10$ 

tli9 Bpot^ The coolnesB of Erskine waa be- 
yond all praise. The tiger measured ain^ 
feet four inches.' 

•i • 

On the Wh., I brought-to at the town of 
Oa^ypore, and sent the crew and servants 
ashore to buy food. The best rosewater in In- 
dia IB manufactured here; and attar is so rich, 
tiiat it is sold as high as one hundred rupees 
iat th^ rupee weight. Travellers are usually 
taken in by sellers of spurious rosewater, and 
I proved, though duly warned, no wiser than 
my neighbours. A plausible rascal came on 
board, and convinced me, in spite of my nose, 
that the three carbhies, each containing eight 
Dr ten quarts, which I bought for nine rupees^ 
FWe of the very first quality : my hookali- 
bwdar, who pretended to be a judge, assisted 
jn making a fool of me: the bargain was 
Iftrupk ; the brittle, yet precious carbhies were 
A constant source of anxiety to me in my 
passage to Calcutta: there the rosy liquid 
was carefully run off into quart bottles, to be 
taken to England, and the first that I stingily 

M2 



164 GANGES. [Gh. HI. 

opened brought me the satis&etory coni^c- 
tion that I had been humbugged. 

The next day an adverse storm raged for 
several hours, and dispersed my armada. My 
budgerow, which is surely built expressly to 
be the laughing stock of the winds, was driven 
ashore with a bump that upset my breakfast 
apparatus ; and the crew, after making one or 
two efforts at tracking, finally ceased their 
fruitless toil and trouble, and quietly took to 
their hubble-bubbles*, their never-failing con- 
solation in time of need. As my vessel lay 
helpless aground, a large fleet of clumsy cotton 
boats, coming up the stream, took advantage 
of the gale, and sailed past me in the most 
triumphant style. I was just envying them 
their prosperous breeze, and perhaps wishing 
them a share in my adversity, when a sudden 
squall swept over the fleet, and left not a sail 
and scarcely \^^ast standing. Down drifted 
these cumbrou's^specimens of naval architecture 

r , 

* Cocoa-ntit pipe so called by the English^ 



tKllL] BUXAR. 165 

with the dtream, and one of the hugest of them 
ran ashore close astern of me with a force that 
would have crushed my comparatively tiny 
craft, like a walnut under the heel of a Bath 
porter. 

During this ill-omened day, I never lost 
sight of Buxar. At this town and at Karinta- 
Dee, just opposite, there is a grand establish- 
ment of the Company's stud, the superintend- 
ant^ Major Hunter, having a pretty house at 
the latter place. Buxar is chiefly celebrated 
as the scene of the great victory gained by 
the British detachment under Major Munro, 
over the countless hosts of Suja ood Doulah 
and Cossim Khan in 1764. The English 
army consisted of little more than seven 
thousand Europeans and Seapoys, whilst 
that of the enemy has been computed at 
forty thousand. Our victory was complete, 
and the capture of one hundred and thirty 
pieces of cannon, and an immense booty, 
rewarded the conquerors. 

I passed the greater part of Valentine's 



idb VOYAdE DOWN fclfclfl. 

day on a shoal in the middle bf the rivtel^. iTbe 
l«reather was dreadftiUy hot, And the btidgeWW 
tiitich out of the pei*pendictilar ; the cretr 
standing foi* two houi« in the water with theit* 
brawny shoulders applied to the counter of 
the stubborn vessel, which only responded by 
n slight heave to their strenuous e^eilions and 
Tocifferated * AUahs I ' It was truly a patience- 
proving predicament. Tired of toy paisiv% 
situation, I at lehgth jutnped out of th4 win^ 
doWj and, trusting to a wet towel twisted rot^d 
fny head, as an Segis against th<g suA's n&eri^ 
diotial rays, and to the <;easeleS8 ululationi Of 
the ddndies as a defence against alligatofi, 
fenjoyed a refreshing bathe. Then drfesilitig; 
mynelf, and taking a gun and a dog, I got 
Itito my dinghee, and leaving my budgerow to 
the care of the crew, proceeded to disturb the 
sitotas of several bf the above-named mona- 
ster* of the deep, whose basking formd I had 
.previously reconnoitred with my telescopei^^*- 
I failed in accomplishing the destruction of 
any of them ; though I flattered myself— and 
_so did my hative aid^'-de^camp-^that many 



Ck..UI.] THX OANOES. 107 

of them only owed their safety — like Ajax — to 
theu: MTen-fold shield of a hide. A drop of 
blood toOy on ono occasion discovered by my 
man Friday, on a sand-bank, satisfied me as 
to the correctness of my aim. 

On these sporting trips I was always ac- 
companied by one of the d&ndies, a plump, 
smiling little fellowi whose sleek russet skin, 
Nature's handy- work, was more becoming to 
him than the most consummate production of 
Stultx could be to the dandies of my native 
land. He was a tacit volunteer, and a perfect 
fanatic in his new pursuit. As a retriever 
he was invaluable ; quite usurping the occu- 
pation of my spaniel, who was amusingly 
jealous. If I shot a wild-duck — and I gene- 
rally got one for my solitary dinner — the 
report of my gun was instantly echoed by the 
plunge of my amphibious attendant, who had 
generally almost reached his object before his 
quadruped rival, conquering his natural hy- 
drophobia and urged by despairing emula- 
tion, had made up his mind to tlie dreaded 
leap* I never saw any uatant animal cleave 



1^ GANGES. £Cli.IU. 

the water with such speed as this fellow, and 
I remarked that he always swam on his side 
with his right hand protended, and his left 
arm vigorously plied as a paddle* This is 
intelligible ; for the keel-like side of a man 
must oppose much less resistance to the 
water than the broad ' breast of controversy ' 
of the straight forward swimmer. 

Feb. I5th. In the morning, a continuation 
of adverse winds, which, however, lulled to- 
wards noon. At 3 p.m., I passed the conflu- 
ence of the Gogra with the Ganges : it is, next 
to the Jumna and the Sone, the most power- 
ful of the tributaries to the queen of rivers. 
Near the junction was fought — according to 
Dow — ^a great battle between the armies of 
the Emperor Acber and Daood the rebel 
governor of Bengal. The latter was beat, and 
fled to Patna, which he defended. On arriv- 
ing before this place, the emperor, with his 
customary heroism, offered to stake his em- 
pire in a single combat with Daood — a chal- 
lenge declined by the latter. He had better 



.7-7f.* 




^/_- 



Ot UI.] DINAPORE. 109 

have accepted it, for he was afterwardis tukcii, 
and murdered iu cold blood. 



The next morning, on awakinp;, I found my 
gallant bark scudding, at the rate of tcai knotty 
an hoar, before a fresh and favourable gale 
mrhich brought me safe to my anchorage at ])i- 
napore, after an exhilarating Bail of six hours. 
I immediately landed, and proceeded to the 
iMUfracks by the 1)ack way, hoping to take my 
relative by surprise. He was out, so 1 employed 
myself in guessing at his character and pur- 
suits by the furniture and garniture of his 
apartment — a test which 1 have generally found 
to be, at least, as satisfactory as a first personal 
interview. I need not d(!tail the conclusions 1 
drew from the following sketch of the young 
cadet's domicile: — in one corner of the room — 
* that served him for parlour, and kitchen, and 
hair — stood a box full of oats for the horMc; 
in another, a billiard cue, a gig-whip, and some 
rackets. On the table lay a volume of Shaks- 
peare, its pages un thumbed, and its back 
impliant; a Persian grannnar, which had 



170 DlNAP6ftfc« [Ch.ltL 

evidently been half gone through«^for only 
the last half was left; a couple of nearly: 
empty boxes of cigars ; and a pab of silk 
French garters, with the embroidered motto, 
* Pensez k moi.' The pictures which adorned 
the white-washed walls were some of * Aikin's 
l^ymptoms/ and two large, framed penddnts 
of our first parents in Paradise, and Leda. 
The awkward schoolboy, whom I had lost sight 
of for four years, had thrown off the chrysalis 
of boyhood, and become the gay, comely, and 
siesquipedalian Ensign. What a change do not 
these four years, from twelve to sixteen, Imng 
about ! and with what anxious solicitude must 
the parent— at that interval between the two 
ages — watch over the dawning qualities of his 
son, which, good or bad, must now be elicited i 
During this eventAil period^ boyhood is ex^ 
changed for manhood, whims for passions, 
love of marbles for first love, and, though last 
not least (in my estimation, as I remember), 
the jacket for the coat. The sanguine youth, 
full of dreams of success, vaults at one spring 
into the arena of life, and commences a series 



dk'nt] DfeEOA FARM. 171 

of combats and struggles, in which he pro- 
bably finds himself the most dangerous of his 
enemies ; sometimes triumphant, at others 
•uccumbent, his toils are sooner or later 
rewarded by the olive-crown of experience. 

Dinapore^-the name always gives me an 
appetite !-^is situated a few miles below the 
confluence of the Sone and Ganges. There 
is little remarkable in the place, except the 
barracks, erected on a more extensive scale 
than any other in India, and in which one of 
His Majesty's regiments and two of the Com- 
pany's are quartered. The country round 
about is exceedingly fertile in grain, but not 
•o in rides for the evening airings of the 
JBkiglish inhabitants. About half a inile from 
the barracks is a great victualling establish- 
ment, called Deega Furm; the estate is of 
some extent, and within its limits are con- 
tained a beautiful dwelling-house, splendidly 
furnished, the residence of the farmer; a 
very extensive Tunbridge-ware shop ; im- 
mense ranges of stalls, containing about 
two thousand bullocks and other cattle ; 



17^ DINAPORE. lCb.Uh 

wine and store vaults ; kitchen ranges ; 
and fruit, vegetable, and flower gardf^ns 
showily laid out. The owner, an 'Exi^itbh 
man, having, as I was informed, made some 
fifty thousand pounds by the same species^ of 
establishment about eight years ago, setup 
for a gentlemen, went to England — ^where of 
course his rupees found him fi*iends— and was 
persuaded by them to aspire to a seat in the 
councils of his country. His M. P^ jdah 
failed, as did his rupees, and consequently h»^ 
friends^ and Mr. H. returned to India, i^ 
poultry, and piggery, where he bids fair sooii 
to realize a second fortune, which— ^with fifty 
thousand pounds' worth of experience — ^will 
enable him to enact the independent gentle^ 
man to the end of his days. 

On the eighth day of my stay at Dinapore, 
tjie Head-quarters' fleet, with its white sails, 
flaunting flags, and * pictis puppibus,' hove in 
sight. The pinnace flag-ship, with its twenty- 
four first-rate budgerows, store-ships, fire^ 
shipd-^for so the cook-boats may be styled-— 



Oh.JII,|] DANKIPORE. 173 

and horse-vcsBels, made really a very impos- 
ing' appearance as they bore down upon the 
town ■' before a fresh breeze. The Comman- 
der-in-chief remained at Dinapore the fol- 
lowing day to review the brigade, and was 
entertained in the evening with a fancy-dress 
bally where there were many good characters, 
and some very pretty ones. 

Ftb. 26th. The fleet dropped down to Ban* 
kipore, the English civil station, near Patna ; 
and the greater portion of our parly dined 
with Sir Charles D*()yley. Here we met with 
a hospitable welcome and good cheer, and in 
the evening we heard sonic beautiful music, 
and saw some splendid drawings of the ta- 
lented Baronet. At Bankipore an? the exten- 
sive opium warehouses of the Company ; and 
near Patna is a huge mountain of a granary, 
built by the English, and alike remarkable 
for its size, its expense in building, and its 
utter inutility. The city of I'atna, of which 
Bankipore may be considered a suburb, ex- 
tends for many miles along the right bank 



IT4 . PATNA. [mUSb 

of the river, which ia at tbii^ poiAt, ill \h^ 
TfAny season, nearly fiye miles in widtb^' 
Patna boasts great antiqiiity, and iif one q| 
those numerous cities set up by conflidtuig 
English antiquarians, as eanditates fof tha 
site of the great Palibothra of Pliny% 
, The remains of an old English fisictpry wti 
shown, where about two hundred p):is9iHm 
were butchered by the adventurer Sumroo, 
whose widow I had the honour of dining with 
a few weeks ago at Meerut, Late in thd 
evening, our party were provided with equi- 
pages, and drove down to the fleet, lying at 
anchor about five miles distant. 

At gun-fire on the %6th, the Head-quarte?s' 
armada got under way, and made a good 
day's run to the village of Bar, a favour- 
able wind propelling us at the rate of eight 
miles an hour. There was a, good deal of 
@|^^lation among the budgerows, and J f^oon 
discovered that mine was not aipong the cf^i 
spilers. At the windings of the river, the vessels, 
though t^ere was plenty of sea-room^ generally 



OLU&] . MOVOtilR. 174 

rah aboard of. each other ; and if one of the 
leading thipi chanced to touch upon a ahoalt 
iha vas sure to be bumped furtheir into the 
mud by the rear attacks of her unwary fol*^ 
lowers. There was something monstrously 
provoking, when well placed in the van of the 
fleet* to be thus suddenly arrested in cmie's 
triumphant career : the friends who shqt past 
you laughed at your mishap, and those who 
buked you up pushed you further into the 
scrape — * a plague of such backing,' I say. 

With prosperous gales, we reached Mon-^^ 
ghir at 3 p.m. the next day, and remained 
there during the night. The fortress of Mon« 
ghir is beautifully situated on a rocky penin- 
sula, formed by a graceful sweep of the river : 
the walls are of brick, and enclose an enceinte 
of about three miles. Most of the ancient 
buildings have fallen to ruin, or been cleared 
away { and there are now only a few houses 
and bungalows, and a cantonment for sepoys 
within the walls. The remainder of tlie space 
is oovered with remarkably fine tjtrf^ and is 



t7d SEETA'S WELL. |Cmi«2 

employed as a^ parade-groiind. W4tlioilt4li*r 
walls, and to the southward of the £(irt> Ikift^ 
the town, which is of great extent: tfai^ 
country in the neighbourhood is extremely 
pretty and fertile, and the prospect is backM* 
up by the mountains of Ck>rruckpore, Mon- 
ghir was much strengthened by Cossim AW 
Khan, the Mogul governor of the provirtcei 
who made strenuous efforts to throw off thl^ 
yoke of the English : the fort was, howe^er^ 
taken after a siege of only nine days* n * ' - * 
The chief Hon of the place is a hot-welli' 
called the Seeta Coond, or Well of Seefai 
—the Apollo of Indian my thology — abdut 
four miles from the fort- It is situated 
in a pretty wooded dell ; and the fact is 
singular that, within a few feet of the hot 
well, there are several springs of cold water. 
The heat of the Seeta Coond is usually about 
137® of Fahrenheit : it is painful to keep the 
hand for more than an instant in the stream x 
and instances are recorded of persons having 
been scalded to death by falling into itr 
The water, having no mineral admixture in 



CkOn^l MOMOHIB. 177 

itei leompodHiony is extremely pleasant to th^ 
taste :< aad such is its purity and durability 
tiMit I considered six dozen quarts, sent me by 
a/fidend for my voyage to England, an offer- 
ing at least equivalent to Horace's vaunted 
^PLenus Albani cadus.' The well is consi'* 
dered. a spot of great sanctity by the Hindoos, 
and superstition has invested it with a divine 
(H%iflL. ,Th6 rock from which the stream 
gvsheft once bore the form of a beautiful 
nymph, who^ like Daphne, underwent the 
metamorphosis to escape from the amorous 
pusut of a god. 

Monghir is at present an invalid dep6t, and 
is considered a very healthy place. It is 
fiunous for its iron-ware and furniture manu- 
&ctures. Among other articles hawked about 
the fleet for sale, a very neatly-made fowling- 
piece was offered me for twenty rupees, or 
two pounds : stock, lock, and barrel appeared 
to be well finished ; but I doubt not that the 
doctor's bill, consequent upon the firing it 
off, would have more than counterbalanced 
the difference of price between the Monghic 

Vol. IL N 



QhtUL] BOOLIPORE. 179 

nnifomiB, and proceeded with his Excellency 
to inspect the barracks of his Majesty's 3rd 
(Buffs)y who are quartered here in temporary 
cantonments. There is also stationed, about 
four miles from the European barracks, a 
native local corps, formed entirely of the wild 
mountaineers of Rajemftl. The country in 
the vicinity of Boglipore is extremely fertile, 
and luxuriantly wooded, and the vegetation 
preserves throughout the year that rich 
verdure caused by the heavy dews pecu* 
liar to the provinces of Bahar and Bengal. 
At a short distance from the cantonments, 
stands a monument — perhaps the only memo- 
rial ever dedicated by Indians in gratitude to 
an European — erected by the natives of the 

ughbouring hills to the memory of an Eng- 

lan, named Cleveland, who was formerly 

[istrate of the district, and whoso short 

fe was devoted to ameliorate the condition 
those mountaineers, who at his death 
(howed that tiiey were not ungrateful for the 
kindness of their benefactor. The cenotaph 
is of Hindoo architecture, and two Fakirs are 

N 2 



178 jakgcjiha: [ckitt 

Aiaker and Wesley Richards of Birmingham 
—who will doubtless take twenty p^^cent 
off my bill for this recommendation. 

Feb. 2Qth. The morning being calm, the 
fleet took its sweeps and fairly rowed itself 
into a favourable wind, which we picked up 
about mid-day as we passed through that 
beautiful estuary of the Granges spread round 
the picturesque rocks of Janguira. The main 
rock is insular, and is crowned with a lofty^ 
Hindoo temple and the habitations of a band 
of Fakirs, whose predecessors have occupied 
this singular spot time out of mind. Jan- 
guira is the scene of a poem by a Mr. Derozio, 
a young Eurasian of great acquirements, who 
has been styled the Byron of the East. The 
situation of the temple is not very unlike 
that of the ch&teau de Chillon ; and the Ganges 
at this spot is to the fiill as wide as Lac 
Leman between Chillon and the Meillerie 
mountains. 

At 3 P.M., the fleet brought-to at Boglipore, 
and we immediately got out our horses and 



Oh. in.] BOOLIPORE. 179 

tmiforms, and proceeded with his Excellency 
to inspect the barracks of his Majesty's 3rd 
(Buffs), who are quartered here in temporary 
cantonments. There is also stationed, about 
four miles from the European barracks, a 
native local corps, formed entirely of the wild 
mountaineers of Rajemftl. The country in 
the vicinity of Boglipore is extremely fertile, 
and luxuriantly wooded, and the vegetation 
preserves throughout the year that rich 
verdure caused by the heavy dews pecu-* 
liar to the provinces of Bahar and Bengal. 
At a short distance from the cantonments, 
stands a monument—perhaps the only memo- 
rial ever dedicated by Indians in gratitude to 
an European — erected by the natives of the 
neighbouring hills to the memory of an Eng- 
lishman, named Cleveland, who was formerly 
magistrate of the district, and whoso short 
life was devoted to ameliorate the condition 
of those mountaineers, who at his death 
showed that they were not ungrateful for the 
kindness of their benefactor. The cenotaph 
is of Hindoo architecture, and two Fakirs are 

N 2 



180 . GANGES-. pwXlb; 

employed to keep a lamp eternaUj; Imriiiogi 
Mrithiii the building. 



* » 



The following mornings after a review and 
a breakfast with the Buffs, we re-embarkedf 
and, haying a good day's run,, reached the 
Golgong Rocks — the Scylla and Charybdis of 
the Ganges — by 3 p.m. These two strange-* 
looking insular crags stand out in the middle 
of the stream, opposite a lofty and woody 
promontory which forces the river from its^ 
straight course. They are both more or less 
clothed with stunted coppice-wood, and are 
ornamented with carved representations Of 
Hindoo deities, or devils. I landed on one 
of the sister rocks in pursuit of a curious bird» 
of a species I never happened to have met 
with before, and which my companion suc-^ 
deeded in shooting. It was milk white, with 
two slender feathers, half a foot long, growing 
out of the back of its head. In size and shape 
it resembled a small sea-gull. 

Looking down from the rock into the pel-* 
lucid depths of the stream, I could distinguish 



Clii^lf^ COLOONG. 181 

the dark fonnd of several huge alligators, who 
rose at intervals to the surface. As I was 
stepping into my dinghee, one of these mon- 
stefTS lifted several inches of his snout (which 
looked like the rough bark of an old oak) 
above the water, within ten yards of me. I 
quickly saluted him with a charge of small 
shot, on which he instantly disappeared. The 
fLeet luggowedf about three miles below Col* 
gong, on the bank of a large island, where, 
in my evening stroll, I found a good deal of 
game. In addition to a plentiful bag of snipes, 
I killed a large bird of the partridge kind, 
which I believe to be the brown chekoar, 
common in the Rajem&l hills, of whose wooded 
heights we enjoy from this spot a beautiful 
view. At the foot of these mountains there 
is to be had some of the finest shooting in 
India. In the thickest of the forest the rhi« 
noceros revels in his native swamps. Lord 
Hastings, with a large party of friends, made 
a sporting campaign under these hills in 1819, 
and killed three of the above-named animals. 
Their skin is so thick as to be almost ballr 



182 SICRIOULLY. [QlUL 

proof, and they are usually shot with tin or 
copp^ bullets or bolts. Elephants have a 
great dread of the rhinoceros, and few of them 
will await his charge. 

March 2nd. The thermometer rose to 87 • 
yesterday ; but was this morning reduced by 
a welcome shower to 75°. It is calculated 
that this seasonable fall of rain will protract 
the cool season for another fortnight. Shortly 
after noon we sailed past the point of Sicri- 
gully, one of the great passes between the 
provinces of Bahar and Bengal. In former 
days there was a strong fortress defending 
the Pass, and a wall running between the 
mountains and the river : the former is m^n* 
tioned as having been stormed by Shah Jehan 
of Delhi, in 1623, when a gallant but unsuc- 
cessful defence was made by some Europeans 
of the garrison, who were finally overpowered, 
and put to the sword. Sicrigully is now 
nothing more than a small hamlet of huts. 
The inhabitants of the lowlands of this part 
of Bahar are dark coloured, stout made, and 



jOluIXL] rajemAl. 183 

illrfavoured. The Puharrees, like those of the 
Nepaul mountains, are Tartar-featured, very 
abort in stature, but strong limbed and active. 
Being unincumbered with the besetting pre* 
judices of the Hindoos of the plains, these 
sturdy little highlanders are well formed for 
soldiers. 

, We passed the night, which was very 
tempestuous, under a steep bank about ten 
miles above the town of Rajem41 ; and the 
next morning at nine o'clock wc sailed past 
that city. None of our party landed here, 
as most of us had inspected its interesting 
ruins when engaged in a similar voyage 
two years ago. RajemM was, at more than 
one, period, the capital of Bengal. It was 
entirely consumed by an accidental conlla* 
gration, whili^t in the possession of Suja, — 
oa$ of the rebel sons of Shah Jehan, whose 
jwsfortuhes are so movingly recounted by the 
historian Dow. Suja then narrowly escaped 
being burnt: and was, at this same place, 
twenty years after, defeated by his nepheW 
Mobumlnet, son and general of the great Au- 
runzebe. The young Mohummet afterwards 



184 SUJA-S PALACE. 

deserted his father's cause fcilr lo\^ of-fais 
beautiful cousin, the daughter of Suja^ whom 
be married ; was seized by his r^nors^less 
parent, and confined in Gwalior, where he 
died, probably of poison. His fair and falth^ 
ful bride broke her heart for sorrow ; and the 
ill-*starred Suja, persecuted by the rancour of 
bis imperial brother, took refuge in Arracan^ 
where he was treacherously murdered by the 
Bajah of that province. Here are materials 
for a novel! Let the author of the *• Spy" 
embody them.* i 

iThe melancholy- ruins of Suja's palace, of 
which a hall of black marble is the most xei 
markable feature, still remain as memorials 
of his unhappy career; but the Ganges, by 
its silent encroachments, bids fair shortly to 
obliterate even these vestiges. The great 
river^ nearly two centuries ago, made aut fen-r 
portant change in its course at this pointy 
everting Gour, the former capital of Ben^, 

' ♦The wrifer of the * Romance of History' might, for the ex- 
t^p^i^ of his, interesting work, eull rich sulject9 from Pavf'$ 
History of Hindostan— yet I almost doubt whether English sym- 
patny could be roused by the exploits or misfortunes of Indian 
li^KWiflad&erdinea^ 



OlUllf^ ' GANGES. 185 

twelre miles £rom Rajemdl, and bringing its 
inconetant waters to wash the more elevated 
bank of the latter place. Here a pretty solid 
obstruction to its further migration to the 
westward is opposed by the rocky ground 
which distinguishes the neighbourhood of 
Bajem&ly and which ceases abruptly at this 
point. Immediately below the town the ap- 
pearance of the country is totally changed ; 
throughout the two hundred and fifty miles 
of alluvial plain between Rajem&l and the 
bay of Bengal, it would bo a difficult matter 
for a mischievous school-boy to find a pebble 
big enough to break a window. 

The following day, after a fine morning's 
sail, we reached Bogwangola, a commercial 
village or town, more remarkable for its im- 
portance as a grain mart than for the dura^ 
bility of its architecture. 

As this spot is very subject to the en- 
croachments and derelictions of the capri- 
cious Gunga — a goddess as notoriously fickle 
as Fortune — the habitations and grain stores 
9fe merely temporary erections of bamboos 



CS6 BOGWANOOIiA. [CtwIIL 

and thatcli. In one of the invasions of the 

river, the tomb of an English officer, who 
died and was buried near the town, was in- 
cluded in its sweeping attack, and ingulphed 
in the sacred flood. ^ 

. Bogwangola is situated near the BhAgiretty 
river, the most western branch of the Ganges. 
This stream connects its parent river with 
the Hooghly, and during the rains, when the 

navigation is available, it presents the most 

... _ • • 

direct passage to Calcutta. At the present 

season it is totally impassable by budgerows, 

and those of our party who are bound straight 

to Calcutta are- consequently obliged to travel 

d4k. 

: The main body of the Head-quarters Fleet 

proceeds hence in an easterly direction as far 

as Dacca, where another detachment will 

branch off to Calcutta by the Sunderbunds ; 

whilst the Commander-in-chief, with a few of 

the heads of departments, extends his voyage 

by the mouths of the Burrampooter, to Chit- 

tagohg, and thence across the bay of Bengal 

to Pooree (a not very fashionable watering 

place on the Cuttack jcoast) where, fanned by 



\ -- 



.Ob.111.] BIVER PUBNA. 187 

the refreshing sea-breezes, we are to pass the 
three broiling months of April, May, and 
June. . 

. The two following days were so profoundly 
calm, that we only made that progress which 
was attainable by oars. We passed Bauliah, 
and Surdah where there is a silk manufactory 
of the Company ; and at mid-day on the 7th, 
our fleet quitted the Ganges for a smaller 
stream, the Pubna, running out of the great 
riyer, and preferable to it on account of the 
dangerous shoals of the latter. We brought- 
to, this evening, at the village of Comerlee. 
. The hot weather has fairly set in with the 
calms; the thermometer ranging for many 
hours this day at 90^. 

March 6th. Continued our passage along 
the little Pubna, whose banks are covered as 
far as the eye can range with all the rich and 
vivid verdiu'o peculiar to Bengal. This morn- 
ing, before sun -rise, as the fleet was making 
but slow progress, a party of three, who 



T88 DULLASURRY RIlHER. [CUtm' 

happened to have horses with us, went ashoi^e^ 
with some greyhounds, and had some eaplt&l^ 
coursing, killing three foxes and a jackdli 
Some villagers reported a fine wild hog in^a^ 
clump of bamboos close at hand, and o:ffieif ed 
to drive him out for us, but we had unluckily 
not provided ourselves with spears. 

1 : : ■ 

? Early the next morning, we scudded past 
the village of Viziergunge, and entered the 
Dullaserry river, which is, in many poixstd^^ 
nearly of equal width with theGanges% After 
running from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m<, the signai-^o< 
hungrily hoped for by the crews^--was given^' 
and the fleet was in a few minutes snugly Jaid 
alongside the bank, near the hamlet of Gwal- 
para. In another instant the English portion 
of the party were to be seen stretching their 
cramped limbs upon the shore, and the mo- 
mentarily increasing fires betokened the dili^ 
gence of the ddndies and servants in pre- 
paring their own or their masters* repasts. 
1 The whole surface of the surrounding coun^ 
try is cut into numberless sm^U islands Ir^ 



C^fUiJJ BORIOVNOA BIVER. 18& 

the myriads of streams, large and insignifir 
QWttn intersecting each other at a thousand 
angles, as they hurry to throw tliemselves 
into the sea, or into the sovereign rivers 
Ganges and Burrampooter. 

The chief product of the country is that 
gold-coining plant, the indigo : and scattered 
here and there, at intervals of ten or twenty 
miles, a snug looking bungalow and a formal 
business-like range of brick buildings mark 
the residence of the hog-hunting, claret-drink- 
ing &ctor, who — ^to his honour be it spoken— 
is always most ready to share his sports and 
his bottle with the chance visitor who may 
happen to stumble upon his solitude. 

March 10th. During this day's sail, we 
quitted the Dullaserry for the Boriguuga 
river; and at p.m. arrived at a hamlet within 
three miles of Dacca, where we brought-to 
for the night, in order that we might reach 
the great city by daylight the next morning. 
Accordingly, ere sunrise, we were floating past 
the five miles of half-ruiued, half-habitable, 



190 . . DACCA. ifjk, ul; 

half-splendid, half-paltry edifices, which, ax- 
tending along the edge of the stream, consti* 
tute the town of Dacca; and shortly aft^, our 
fleet was moored opposite the Civil statioii. 
Although the city does not boast of very great 
antiquity, yet its many extensive and interest- 
ing ruins^-which have been done ample justice 
to by the pencil of Sir C. D'Oyly — attest its. 
former consequence under the Mogul govern*- 
ment. It was at one period the capital of the 
province of Bengal, and the station of a Mo* 
gul fleet of armed cruizers, destined to check 
the Portuguese pirates at that time ravaging 
the coasts, and to coerce their troublesome 
neighbours of Arracan. 

Dacca is now a considerable station of 
Company's servants and Company's ele- 
phants, of which latter there is organized 
here a stud of about three hundred. Every 
lady knows that Dacca is famed for the fine 
texture of its muslins; but owing to the im*^ 
provement of that branch of manufacture in 
England, and the consequent decreasing 
encouragement to the Dacca fabricators, the 



C3h.IIL] RUIN& OF DACCA. 191 

very important art of composing the finer 
descriptions of this elegant ingredient of the 
female wardrobe is in imminent danger of 
being lost. 

The town is closely hemmed in by jungles 
of hundreds of miles in extent, in some parts 
tojtally impenetrable^ These fastnesses are 
the great preserves of tigers^ and other of 
the nobler game, which, without such places 
of refuge, would probably, long ere this, 
have been extirpated by the indefatigable 
ardour of British sportsmen. For miles 
round the town, in the depths of the wildest 
forests, the explorer will stumble upon the 
moiddering vestiges of the ancient grandeur 
of Dacca. Palaces, mosques, aild tombs are 
now become the lurking places of tigers, le0<» 
pards, and hyaenas : in the more accessible 
parts of the jungle, an immense variety of 
game is to be found; but the sportsman is 
not always successful, for the animals, at the 
first report of a gun, commonly make good 
theif retreat to those tangled regions whither 
he cannot follow them. 



192 DACCA. eOklXL 

BnfifoloB, hogs» and deer alxmitdt; tuKJb Jtto 
fitfreams are aUve with, those ri¥ec4>eBtB, aUi- 
gators, whose penchant for human flesh lenii 
ders that chiefest luxury in a tropical ctisiate^ 
bathing, % matter of extreme danger^ Yet it 
is strange to see with what perfect nonrcha^i 
liuice, the native ddndies, in case of necessity, 
take the water. . •; 

A beautiful specimen of an alligatott'Sihead 
was here given by Mr. Alexander to iliQ(rdi> 
CSombermere. He was rather a distinguished 
monster, having carried off at different^oed^-^* 
sions, six or eight brace of men from an indiga/ 
factory in the neighbourhood. A native, who 
had long laid wait for him, at length jsucoeeded 
in slaying him with poisoned arrows. One 
of these notoriously ghaut-frequenting alliga<* 
tors is well nigh as rich a prize to the poot 
native who is fortunate enough to capture 
him, as a Spanish galleon is to a British fri^ ; 
gate ; for on ripping open his stoinaeh, and 
overhaulmg its freight, it is not unfirequently 
found to contain ^ a choice assortment'--^as 
the Calcutta advertisers have it— *x)f gold,. 



CHaUS NAWAUBSHUMS'^OOD-DOULAH. 193 

mii»&i^iOT 'hroM bangles and anklets, which 
hatte BDt. been so expeditiously digested as 
theif Adr owners, victims of the monster's 
voracity. A little fat Brahminee child, ' farci 
all ris/ must be a tempting and tender bonne- 
bouche to these river gourmands. Horrific 
legends such as the above, together with a 
great deal of valuable advice on the subject; 
i^ere quite thrown away upon me ; for ninety 
degrees of Fahrenheit, and the enticing blue* 
noBB of the water generally betrayed me into 
a plonge every evening during my Gangetic 

voyage. 

■ - ' . ■ ' 

> On the following day his Excellency re- 
ceived the visit of the Nawaub Shums-ood^ 
Doulah, the only native of rank now resident 
at Dacca. He was, in times past, in some 
measure implicated with Vizier Ali in his 
treacherous massacre of the English at Be** 
nares; and vegetated, in consequence, for 
many years in the prisons of Calcutta, where 
he made himself master of the English lan- 
guage, and picked up a respectable smattering 

Vou n. o 



104 DACCA. Itjk. lit. 

of English history and literaturfe. He is 
now a pensioner of the Company, and still 
retains some Of the insignia of royalty abndt 
his court and person. 

His Highness^for such is by courtesy hii 
title^^is about sixty years of age^ of middling 
stature, with a remarkably ftdir complexion 
and an intelligent and amiable expression of 
countenance. He was dressed simply y^ 
handsomely, and his silver white hair ap^ 
peared in short elaborate curls from tindet 
his muslin turban. His steps were supported 
by a thick walking staff— by which he seeiuM 
to set great store — formed of an entire piece 
of ivory : I have since seen just such another 
depending from the kid-covered little finger 
6f an Almack's beau. 

It is said that Bishop Heber— Of whose 
journal I have not yet been able to obtain it 
perusal — has spoken somewhat slightingly of 
his Highness's royal insignificance ; and I was 
informed that the Nawaub, on hearing that 
the work was in the possession of a gentle^ 
man at Dacca, expressed a wish to read it. 



GkUt] A day's 8PORT. l05 

The gentleman^ willing to spare his feelings, 
made excuses ; but the Nawaub persisted^ and 
wai» on turning to that part where himself is 
spoken of, extremely irate at what he called 
the ingmtitude of Heber, who— as he said in 
a remonstrative article which he put into the 
Cflleutta newspapers — had requited his atten- 
tion with ridicule and detraction, or words to 
that effects 

March, 13th. A chasse having been pre- 
viously organized, a party of sportsmen 
started in buggies at 4 a.m. for a point of 
rendezvous, eight miles from Dacca. After 
due preparation we entered the jungle, which 
was in general exceedingly high and thick, 
with a line of no less than sixty elephants, 
the most numerous assembly of these animals 
that I have ever seen convened on a sporting 

* I have, since writing the above, of course found opportunitiei 
of reading the lamented Bishop^s interesting journal, and I think 
that the handsome manner in which the NawauVs character and 
aoquiremcnta are spoken of ought amply to counterbalance any 
reflections of the Author on his Highnesses assumption or retention 
of royal pomp. 

O 2 



196 DACCA. [Ch.111. 

occasion. Those who have witnessed ^nc^ 
appreciated the brave show that thirty coxipl^e 
of hounds exhibit at the cover side, may inaa- 
gine the enthusiasm with which I reviewed 
this gallant pack, as they, at the word of 
command, quitted the road, and crashed 
through the yielding jungle. We had three 
hours very good sport, though the bag was 
disgracefully disproportionate to the vast ex- 
penditure of powder and shot. Two enormous 
elks, a couple of hogs, several d^er, and a few 
heads of small game were carried home. I 
shot a curious little animal, in appearance- 
something between a hare and a guinea-pig, 
of a deep brown colour, and less speedy in 
its paces than the hare. On picking it up, I 
was surprised, and rather gratified to find, that 
.1 had killed it with a bullet, having fired the 
wrong barrel by mistake. A party of guallahs, 
or cow-herds, had led us, by their reports, to 
hope for a tiger, and some wild buffaloes ; 
but we discovered nothing of them but their 
footmarks. The weather is at this sejE^on 
not sufficiently sultry to force these animals 



cilIil] the nawaub. 197 

to the plains in search of water — nevertheless, 
the thermometer rose to 95° this evening in 
my boat. Later in the year, the sporting 
club of Dacca make very successful expedi- 
tions into the neighbouring jungles, residing 
for two or three days at a time in convenient 
shooting bungalows, established for that pur- 
pose. 

The afternoon was devoted to returning the 
visit of the Nawaub, who sent his English 
carriage, (of which he is extremely proud) 
to convey Lord Combermere to his palace. 
This vehicle is something in the Lord Mayor's 
style as to ornaments and painting, and is 
drawn by four dun-horses, and followed by as 
many royally-rigged outriders. It was given 
to him by the British Government, as an ac- 
knowledgment for his liberal present of eight 
fine elephants, which he made to them at the 
epoch of the Ava war, when these animals 
were in great request, and were purchased 
up at ruinous prices. At the conclusion of 
hiis Highness's levee, the Head-quarters party 



198 PACCA. [Ch. Uh 

dined with the military of the station, and 
the repast was followed by a quadrille party. 
At two in the morning I closed a day which 
had commencedi with me, at 3 a.m. 



190 



CHAPTBR IV. 
THE VOYAGE CONTINUED. 

Marel^ 14th. Ax daylight the reveillid drum 
roused the yawning d&ndies from their hard 
couches on the decks of the budgerows ; the 
maungees' shrill voices summoned them to 
exertion; their loins were quickly girded, 
their long elf-locks thnist back behind their 
ears ; the awning, spread over them as a pro- 
tection against the night dews, was speedily 
furled, and in ten minutes the Head^quarters 
fleet was again under weigh, and proceeding 
in a body down the river. 

The next morning we entered the Burram- 
pooter river, which assumes, at this stage of 
its course, the name of Megna. At the point 
where this noble stream received us, its width 
must be equal to that of the lake of Geneva;-^ 
would that the temperature of the atmosphere 
would bear a like comparison I What would 



200 THE BURRAMPOOTEIU ( ' ' [CKJIV. 



I not give at this moment for one hour loftiici 
fresh breezes from the Jura, to mitigate the 
ftiry of Fahrenheit's 95% I would ^rest 
compound for a gust or two of the Bise, tant 
redout^e, by way of variety. 

The vessels sailing along the opposite 
Inhere appeared hull- down, and the t(^ of 
the trees alone gave evidence of the landw 
The Burrampooter or Bhramapootra?— which'^ 
ever name it rejoices in — ^although it cannot 
boast the sanctity of the Ganges, ndiist he 
acknowledged to be the first river of Indilai- 
It is supposed to derive its source-^lifce ifce' 
Rhine and Rhone — from the same group^ 
of snowy mountains as the Ganges : after 
making a sweeping course of upwards of 
one thousand six hundred miles, it again ap- 
proaches its sacred sister, and the twin rivers 
pour forth, at the same point, their munificesit 
tribute to the Bay of Bengal. 

We had not sailed many miles on the 
Megna, ere the fleet separated into two 
squadrons. The officers destined to accom* 
pany the Commander-in-chief to Chittagoog 



Ch.IV.] VOYAGE TOWARDS CALCUTTA. 201 

having provided themselves at Dacca with 
pinnace0» as being more seaworthy than the 
kedless budgerows, continued their descent 
of the river; whilst the division bound to 
Calcutta by the Sunderbunds,— to which I 
had the honour to belong — dropped astern, 
and brought-to at the mouth of a small creek 
uniting the Megna and Ganges ; where we 
wdre constrained to wait four hours before 
the: tide had rendered the communication 
available. A six hours* row brought us to 
the! esttfemity of the creek, and the boats 
sMPe luggowed for the night at the point 
where it joins the Ganges. I took a ramble 
as, usual in search of a ^ second course/ and 
brought home rather an unusual medley. 

Let not my reader suspect me of shooting 
with a long bow, nor of an attempt to classify 
him with the last named bird in my list of 
the slain, when I tell him that, in nine shots^ 
I killed four couple of snipe, three pigeons, 
one eagle, two nameless birds of the duck 
tribe,' a water-snake, and one gulL The 
snipen bU fell to the first discharge of my two 



9Q2 |I»-»NT»» TP» RANGES. [fih jy, 

bvrrels. I fii>^ at two pf th^Q tiirijA ^ ih»y 
w^re 1;>oriQg in the mu4 c^t t}^^ luwk of fitkiu 
ledge ; and a mg)it Qf sodue fKK>i?e iminedi' 
ately sprung from the marsh to receiye my 
second shot. The first had kiUed six birds, 
four of which were invisible when I fired. 

Early the following morning we were once 
more floating on the stream of the Ga^^, 
whom we found much increased in biill^ singe 
we took, leave of her ten days ago. Tho god^ 
dess river has some cause to complain of our in* 
constancy, for after having ploughed h^ brq^d 
translucent bosom for three or fpur hovi^, 
we again deserted her in favpur of a little min:^ 
of a nvulet^ one of her collateral relatiaQ^> 
who seduced us into a hundred scrape^ with 
her shoals, sand-banlis, and lee shores* 

Too close an acquaintance with the banJw 
of these inlets, spme of which ar^i twenty feet 
high and formed of ill-^cemented sand, may 

be attended with ^erioues co»pequ§nco«* It is 

cowmoft to see huge mmmi of the super-^ 
iiumineAtoartfei sapped by the agiteted water. 



Ou IV.) QVIT THE OAN0EII. 203 

detach themselves from the bank and plunge 
into the atream with a force whichi if brought 
to bear on the deck of a vessel, would infalli- 
bly swamp it. 

The next day we fell in with a fine stiff 
breeze, favourable to us in the greater part 
of our numerous meanderings; though, on 
some occasions, so tortuous was our course, 
that it blew right in our teeth. 

In some of the serpcntinings of the stream^ 
the fastest of the budgerows, which were a 
mile a-head of me in distance by water, 
showed their gay pennants over the low land 
on my flank, and were only divided from me 
by twenty paces of sand ; and whilst my boat 
was tracked with difficulty against the fierce 
wind, the same breeze was propelling my 
precursors at the rate of eight knots. 

In the afternoon the east wind slunk away 
before a black phalanx of clouds, which sud- 
denly invaded the heavens from an opposite 
quarter : a sultry and almost stifling interval 
succeeded; a peculiar odour from the sorr 



;.)/ 



204 A NORtH-WESTER. ' t^l IV. 

rdutiding jungles hung upon the languid ^ir; 
and every symptom betokened a north-westfer. 
Whilst we deprecated its approach for this 
sake of our friends, who would have to bufffet 
it in the perilous mouths of the Megna, "^e 
C^uld scarce refrain from praying for its cool- 
ing influence upon our own land-locked de- 
tachment. We had just leisure to make our 
craft hard and fast by double moorings to the 
shore, near the village of Burrasal, wheii the 
hurricane reached us. It was accompanied 
by* violent rain, and thunder and lightning ; 
atid iii a quarter of an hour it had passed on, 
featving us nearly twenty degrees cooler froiki 
its visit. The storm brought with it nunie- 
rous flights of golden plover from the mo- 
rasses; and the earth teemed with reptiles 
tempted from their lurking places by the iii- 
viting shower. In my ramble I killed three 
couple of these plover, which have the game 
plumage, and almost the game flavour of the 
woodcock. I also shot two snakes, one of 
whidh, a cobra di capella, I cut in two in the 
act of flying at my spaniel, which had dis- 



CKIVOi VOYAGE TOWARDS CALCUTTA. 205 

turbed him. The whole reptile and insect 
world seemed to hold high carnival : the 
frogs, and crickets were perfectly stunning 
iu, their exultation ; the cock-roaches rushed 
from their retreats, and revelled about my 
cabin; and swarms of grasshoppers, dra- 
gon-flies, and beetles, attracted by the light, 
almost extinguished the flame that had fas- 
cinated them. Whilst dressing for dinner, 
I slew a centipede, more than half a foot 
longt as a was crawling along the wainscot, 
unfortunately disqualifying it for the spirit- 
pl^jial, by decapitating it with a paper-cutter, 
the weapon that I availed myself of in my 
haste. 

March IQth. The toofaun of yesterday ha^ 
but half done its work, for the atmosphere 
has again relapsed into its fever ; nor can we 
for some time expect a repetition of that 
healing tempest, providentially ordained to, 
pp,y periodical visits during the hot season,, 
and sweep from the narrow streets of IndiaPr 
citiief^ ajdd the tangled marshes ofjudi^ai 



S06 LAL-CHITTBB*&A-BA2AAR* [Ck IV. 



jungles the infectious diseases, and baneful 
mal'aria which are therein generated^ 

At noon we passed a long^ straggling, and 
thoroughly Bengalee wigwam^ which the ba« 
tives called Lal-Chittee«ka*Bazaar. Hie 
houses were all formed simply of mats, thatch^ 
palmyra leaves, and bamboos, but the inhdbi-* 
tants were swanning, like bees^ on the shore, 
and all wore a busy and a thriving ai^. Th^ 
hamlet was backed up by a thick curtain of 
cocoa-trees, palmyras, and plantains, add a 
long line of timber-stacks indicated the chief 
staple of its commerce. Hundreds 6f boats 
lay along the shore freighted- with wood and 
grain ; many of the larger craft, fine teak- 
built vessels, were Birmese ; and their crews, 
with their coarse flat features, and massive 
muscular limbs, contrasted stroiigly with the 
light, supple, and graceful figures of the Bea- 
galees. We afterwards met one of these 
huge boats coming up the river. It stood at 
least ten feet out of the water, and was pro- 
pelled by forty long oars, pulled by men in a 
standing position. They kept time with the 



Ch.lVj DStf A OP THt OAKOES. SOlT 

gl«at68t {yirecision, though the measure, two 
short strokes succeeded by two long ones, 
appeai^6d rather difficult. The rowers Were 
in full chorus as we passed them. 

The nameless creek, on which this bazaai* 
is established, is, I should judge, at least as 
wide as the Thames at Windsor ; and a hun-* 
dred such streams intersect the Great Delta 
of the Ganges, rendering roads almost useless^ 

Although this portion of Bengal is so 
subject to inundations, and so replete with 
miasma-fostering jungles, the inhabitants did 
not strike me as being less healthful than 
their more northern brethren. Elephantiasis 
is indeed here more common, but this fright- 
ful disease does not disqualify the patient 
for bodily labour. 

To the mind of the traveller, journeying 
fh>m the north, there is something remarkably 
pleasing in the peaceful and almost Utopian 
constitution of the Bengalee community, as 
compared with the more warlike character of 
the tribes he has just left behind him. In the 
upper provinces, in general, the soldier is 



208 BALLISORE RIVEB. [C^IV. 

blended so intimately with the cultiyatar, that 
he who guides the plough and casts .^e*#00d 
wears a shield on his shoulder, and at hi& aide 
a sword which he may ha^e to wield in de-» 
fence of his harvest. War mixes not with the 
dreams, nor weapons with the dress of. the 
purely pastoral Bengalee. He is jd^iQid, 
contented, and unambitious — apathetic and 
selfish if you please — and must truly and 
gratefully appreciate that change of goyern- 
ment which allows him to eat his bread and 
worship his gods without fear of invaE^ion 
from Mussulman or Mahratta, or the rapacity 
of those predatory hordes, whom the British 
monopoly of power has swept from the face 

of India. 

The next day, after losing some hours by 
lying-to for the ebb-tide, and redeeming the 
lost time by stealing ^ a few hours from the 
night,' thereby enjoying a delightful moonlight 
sail, we luggowed on the bank of the Ballisore 
river, a large stream running hence direct to 
the sea. This we soon deserted ; and on the 



tk.i^Ji EKTiSte- ThE SUNDERBUNDS* 209 

HViU^UVU km., <mr fl^et brought-to at Ciilna, 
Whwe'' It ii»' customary for Calcutta-bound 
boftts to -take in anchors and fresh water— all 
the cte^s to the southward being brackish. 
The -anchors, which are strange clumsy ma- 
chines of bamboos weighted with stones and 
bbtttid with cocoa ropes, are required at this 
stage of OUT voyage, by reason of the risk 
elttehdant upon the usual system of luggow- 
ing, ifrom the tigers which infest the j ungles 
bordering the streams. During the passage 
of' the Sunderbunds (beautiful forests), to 
which Culna may be said to be the northern 
entrance, the dAndies, having Major Munro's 
fate before their eyes, can rarely go ashore to 
cook their evening meal ; the budgcrows cast- 
ing anchor in the middle of the stream, where 
the luxurious traveller may lounge securely, 
smoke his moonlight chillum, and listen to 
the roars of the prowling tigers. At this 
hourj" when all nature sleeps, every leaf is at 
rest, and no harsher sound than the gentle 
rippling of the water round the prow of the 
boat disturbs the soft silence of an Indian 

Vol. II. P 



210 CULNA. [CIlIV. 

night, there is something peculiarly awful 
and startling in the sudden, short, furious, 
and perhaps near-at-hand voice of the jungle 
tyrant, whose yellow skin and glaring eyes 
may sometimes be distinguished through the 
imperfect light, as he hungrily surveys the 
floating ark, whose tenants, though barely a 
dozen paces from his station, are safe £rom 
his attacks. 

Near this spot, two years ago, on the return 
of Head-quarters from the siege of Bhurt- 
pore, two boatmen, belonging to an office 
budgerow, who had rashly determined on the 
enjoyment of a meal ashore^ were themselves 
made a meal of, ere they had leisure to com* 
plete their own* 

On this same occasion, during our sojourn 
of twenty-four hours at Culna, we had a 
capital opportunity of witnessing that inge- 
nious religious ceremony of the Hindoos, 
Styled Cherruck Poojah. The spot chosen 
for the spectacle was a clear space, sur- 
rounded by a cloSe skreen of lofty and luxu- 
riant foliage, on the outskirts of one of those 



Ob. IVJ . THE 8UNDERBUND8. 211 

secluded jungle-IiamletS) peculiar to Bengal, 
wlio»e retired situation, indicated only by 
a labyrinthian path, the rambling stranger 
Btumbles upon by chance alone» scarcely dis« 
oovering that he has run his prying nose into 
a cluster of habitations, until warned of his 
intrusion by the scuttling flight of a covey of 
women and children. In the centre of this 
clearing stood a wooden edifice, some sixty 
feet high, in appearance something like a 
quadruple gibbet ; the four arms being made 
to revolve round the centre pole, by means of 
a capstan below. It was as frightful an ob- 
ject as a dentist's chair to the school-boy 
with three rows of teeth ! Four votaries were 
allowed the advantage of hanging at the 
same moment. An eminent member of the 
Medical Board was present with us, and the 
Brahmins willingly allowed him to witness 
the mode of placing the hooks. A pair of 
these terrific-looking weapons were affixed 
to the end of stout ropes, sheaved through 
the extremities of the several limbs of 
the machine ; and, after some preparation 

P2 



212 THE CHEBRUCK POOJAH. IdulV. 

which I was too late to see, were thrust 
under the muscles low down on each shoul- 
der-blade of the highly-privileged swingefs— r 
linen girths to support some portion of the 
body's weight being supplied. At a given 
signal, the four performers were nimbly run 
up to the height of twenty or thirly feet from 
the ground; when the ropes were belayed^ 
and the capstan was set a-going with right 
good will, the tortured votaries swinging 
round with frightful velocity, amid the crash 
of drums and fiddles, and the cheering accla- 
mations of the assembled crowds. la .this 
fashion did they continue to whirl in mid-air 

ft 

for ten minutes; their countenances indi- 
cating sternly-repressed agony, their hands 
in the attitude of prayer, and their long hair 
streaming in the wind. They were then 
obliged to vacate their merry-go-round to 
other candidates. Those who have witnessed 
this cruel penance will allow that the Ben- 
galee has some species of courage, an attri- 
bute not generally accorded them by English 
opinion. 



Ch.IV.J CULNA. ijl3 

During our short and necessary stay at 
Culnai a steam-boat, bound to Dacca, ran 
past the place, defying wind and tide. It is 
the second that has ever navigated these 
streams ; yet so perfect is the apathy and 
indifiPerence of the Bengalee to everything 
that does not immediately concern himself, 
that the novel sight scarcely excited a symp- 
tom of curiosity. Even the better-informed 
natives of Calcutta, where steamers have 
been common for the last year or two, have 
never given themselves the trouble to make 
themselves acquainted with the powers and 
principle of the vessel; but persevere in 
styling it the * Dhoor-kee-Jehaze,' smoke* 
ship, or * Ag-kee-Jehaze,' fire-ship. 

22nd, A fair store of fruit, kids, anchors, 
and water vessels, having been stowed on 
board, we quitted Culna, and resumed our 
voyage towards Calcutta — distant seven 
days' sail. During the greater part of the 
day we were rowing along a very narrow 
but exceedingly deep creek, whose banks 



814 SCENERY OP [OuIYj 

were so thickly overhung with tangled brash- 
wood interwoven with the creeping rattan, 
ths^t it was impossible to go ashore, an enjoy^r 
ment which I felt sorely tempted to indulge 
in, despite the tigers, in order to escape during 
the cooler hours from my oven-like budgerow, 
which in the day-time becomes so thoroughly 
heated by the sun, that even in the evening 
it is almost untenable. Thermometer, 5 p.h 

Nothing can exceed the luxuriant richness 
of the Sunderbund vegetation. How plen- 
tiful must be the dews, which, unassisted by 
one drop of rain, cp.n for months counteract 
the parching power of such a sun as now 
bums above our heads ! In the clearer por- 
tions of the forest, the natural vistas, produced 
by the numerous clumps of trees dotted over 
the verdant plain, give so park-like an appear- 
ance to the prospect, that one almost expects 
at the next turn to catch sight of the owner's 
splendid mansion. Whilst the eye is feasted 
by the infinite variety of tints in the foliage 
of the groves and bankg, the scent is regaled, 



CbJV.J THE SUNDERBUNDS^ 215 

almost to surfeiting, with the spicy breezes 
which float through the atmosphere, loaded 
with sweets from the surrounding forests. 
The woods are chiefly formed of the feather- 
ing bamboo, the noble tamarind, with its vivid 
green and refreshing fruit; the cocoa-nut, 
palmyra, plantain, areeka, or betel-tree, and 
the cotton-tree, which at this season is devoid 
of leaves, and brilliantly clothed with crimson, 
tulip-shaped flowers. The thar, or palm-date, 
from whose stem the exhilarating toddy is 
extracted, must not be forgotten : the liquor, 
exuding before sunrise, is a delightful and 
innocent beverage, and only gains its intoxi- 
cating qualities by being allowed to ferment 
in the Iieat of the day. In the latter state, 
and even rendered still more fiery by the in- 
fusion of chillies, it is drank in great quan- 
tities by the English soldiers ; and many a 
liver-complaint, laid to the charge of an Indian 
climate, in fact owes its origin to this lava- 
like potation. It is, moreover, so unluckily 
cheap, that a regular hard-going, dram-drink- 



216 A SPORTING JSTROLL. [CM^I¥i 

ing campaigner may get dead drunk ibirthe 
value of a penny. '■'.>. ., w /c 

The following morning — ^whilst the fleet 
was performing a wide circuit — three of our 
party took advantage of a tract of country 
partially cleared and inhabited to enjoy 
a good long ramble with our dogs and 
guns* We mustered a mixed pack of twenty- 
seven dogs, seventeen of them being grey- 
hounds, and made desperate havoc among 
the jackalls and foxes, abounding in these 
r^ions, and the only wild beasts we met 
with during our walk. We passed several 
small portions of cultivated land, which, by 
the encouragement of government, have been 
reclaimed from utter waste by small parties 
of wood-cutters and salt-manufacturers, who 
are bold enough to dispute possession with 
the aboriginal inhabitants, the tigers* In 
the swamps, our dogs put up great quan- 
tities of remarkably fine snipe; and I soon 
found myself wading after them, though my 



Ch.lV.l SUNDERBUNDS. 217 

enjoyment of tho sport was somewhat damped 
by the recollection of the possibility of myself 
being made game of by the tigers. 

It was near this spot» two years ago, that, 
whilst following tlie edge of the river in pur* 
suit of wild fowl, I was arrested by the loud 
barkings of my terrier — the identical Hector, 
whose fate I have recorded at the commence- 
ment of this journal-— and on running to the 
spot, discovered him up to his chin in the 
mud of the tide-deserted creek, and baying 
at some object under the hollow bank. I had 
just time to take post on a little promontory 
of sward, when a young alligator, of the short-* 
headed or cannibal species, rushed from under 
the cavity, and made towards the water, lite- 
rally ventre k terre. At the distance of five 
paces I delivered my two barrels of shot, one 
of which, breaking through the soft scales 
behind the elbow of the animal, killed him on 
the spot. His length did not exceed six or 
seven feet. 

This and such like personal anecdotes are^ 
it must be admitted, trifling and egotistical ; 



218 . <JAI.CUTTA. [(31. JV* 

yet I make no ?ipologi^8 foT mtroduciAg thwi : 
for glimpses of a distaat country are ofteii 
as well afforded to the reader by incidental 
trifles as by more laboured details ; and 
egotism i^ necessarily the very essence of a 
journal. 

During the next three days we made good 
progress; passing Muckterpore-^marked on 
Kingsbury's map->-on the 24th ; and winding 
through the serpentines of the Attara Banka 
on the 26th — the thermometer ranging as high 
as 97° in our cabins. Early on the morning 
of the 27f A Marchi we found ourselves within 
eight miles of Calcutta, tightly wedged among 
the thousands of salt and timber boats, which 
constantly throng the busy channel of TuUy'a 
NuHah-^a narrow creek running into the 
JHLooghly, half a mile south of Fort William. 
On§ tide brought us up to Kidderpore bridge, 
where sm equipage awaited me, and I was 
soon among the white walls of the City of 
Palaces, and comfortably installed in apart- 
TmnX^ in the newly-organized Bengal club» 



Cai.IV.1 LEAVE CALCUTTA. 210 

I sojourned a fortnight in Calcutta, during 
which time tlie gay inhabitants, flattering 
themselves that a remnant of the cool season 
was still in their possession, were feasting, 
fiddling, and dancing, in spite of Fahrenheit's 
\Farning finger, pointing to 00°. 

On the 12th Aprils two brethren of the Staff 
and myself put ourselves, servants, and bag- 
gage pn board the Planet, buoy- vessel, of one 
hundred and eighty tons, destined — it will be 
seen how successfully — to convey us to Head*- 
quarters, now convened at Pooree Jugger- 
naut. With the south-west monsoon blowing 
briskly, our marine prospects were not very 
cheering, our exit from the river, the treacher-i 
ous Hooghly, being wholly dependent upon 
the tides. By mid-day we had commenced 
that unsatisfactory mode of locomotion, styled 
^ dropping down ;' and at 3 p.m. our misfor- 
tunes — of which we were fated to encounter a 
aeries — ^began by the vessel's running aground 
ftt a turn in the stream, scarcely out of sight 
of Calcutta ; where, after sundry edifying but 



220 BUDGE-BUDGE. £Cli. IV» 

futile efforts at extrication^ we were ccm- 
strained to exercise our patience until tbe 
next ebb tide, which occurred at eleven o'clock 
the following morning ; the pilots in the mean*^ 
time, consoling us with the assurance that^ as 
he knew of no shoal at our * sticking-place/ 
we must have run upon a sunken vessel. 

On the evening of the second day we had 
only reached Budge-Budge-*-a village whose 
very name seemed to mock our fruitless 
attempts at further progress,— where we an- 
chored for the night. On this point there 
are the remains of an old fortress, wliich was 
in 1756 besieged and breached in due form 
by an English naval and military force. Few 
instances are recorded of a regularly-appointed 
fort succumbing to the prowess of a single 
individual ; yet such was the fall of Budge- 
Budge. During the night preceding the in^ 
tended assault, a British sailor, prompted by 
the united influence of Mars and Bacchus, 
approached the work, staggered up the breach^ 
and fired his pistol among the gallant defend- 



CluIVJ) KBDGEIlEfi. 221 

ers of 'this Indian Saragossa^ whose terrors, 
magnifying or rather multiplying, the solitary 
tar into a countless storming party, induced 
tbem hastily to evacuate the place, leaving 
Jack to chew the quid of astonishment at the 
success of his exploit ! 

The next day — after meeting a steam-vcs^ 
seU which gave us the intelligence of the 
Commander-in-chief's arrival at Pooree — ^we 
accomplished the passage of the dangerous 
shoal of the * James and Mary,' whereon were 
grounded two large ships, the Exmouth and 
tlie Jehangire, who were obliged the next 
day to return to Calcuttar— although outward 
bound — to repair damages. 

On the 10/A, we anchored opposite Kedge^ 
ree, fifty-two miles from Calcutta, the station 
of a solitary English officer, whose duty con- 
sists in despatching daily shipping news to the 
capital. The river is, at this point, nearly nine 
mile^ across ; the country low, marshy, a»d' 
particularly unhealthy. r 



222 SAUGER ISLE. [[CIuIV. 

In the afternoon of the following day we 
anchored in Sanger Roadsi at the mouth of 
the Hooghly. The island of Sanger, in spite 
of the efforts made to reclaim it, is still a 
most desolate jungle; and vegetation id th^e 
so rapid as to defy all chance of effectually 
clearing it. Sauger is famous for the size and 
ferocity of its tigers ; and it was oh its shores 
that Major Munro, of menagerie manory, was 
carried off by one of these animals. They 
owe their impunity from the sportsmen of 
Calcutta to their island position alone, which 
precludes the introduction of elephants. 

16th. During the whole of this day the 
wind blew furiously and constantly from the 
south-west. At 5 p.m. we met a pilot-vessel 
towing home a buoy which had parted from 
its moorings ; and during the night we sailed 
past the * Floating Light,' and got into blue 
water. 

The next day we made but little way, and 
during the night the breeze freshened to a 



ClLlV.] SEA. VOYAGE TO POOREE. 223 

gale. Our little craft pitched and rolled vio'* 
lently, and shipped a good deal of waten 
The state of our native servants, particularly 
the Hindoos — ^who had stretched a point in 
embarking with us — was most pitiable ; their 
excessive sickness being aggravated by their 
religion exacting that, whilst on board ship, 
they should feed on dry uncooked food 
alone. The Mussulmans suffered less, their 
more sensible creed imposing no such morti* 
tifying restrictions on the appetite. 

On the 20thy after remaining a few hours 
under sail, during which we lost rather than 
gained anything a-head, the pilot again 
dropped anchor, and we rode out the gale 
with a hundred fathoms of cable, in twenty 
fathoms water. The morn broke with evil 
auspices unabated, the monsoon raging in 
our teeth, our servants groaning at their 
hitherto unknown torments, and ourselves, if 
not sea-sick, — for we were all good sailors-^ 
at least sick of the sea. At noon our observa«> 
tions proved that we were within sixty miles 



224 BAY OP BENGAL. [Cli.IV: 

of OUT destination, but with as little prospect 
of attaining it as though the distance had 
been as many thousand leagues. There was 
a very heavy sea running all day, and we 
were again doomed to pass the greater part of 
it at anchor. At length the pilot command^ 
ing approached me with a length of visage 
indicative of a catastrophe. The vessel 
—he said — was driving, and dragging her 
best bower. Another anchor was dropped, 
and the serang or native boatswain, on going 
below to ' give her cable^" discovered and re- 
ported that the good brig Planet — alas ! that 
my fortunes should be influenced even for a 
week by so inauspicious a star! — had three 
feet water in the hold. She had got a strain, 
as the commander assured me, by carrying 
so great a press of sail on a wind in a he^vy 
sea ; a piece of information which I paid little 
attention to, as I had already made up my 
mind, first, that the leak arose from a huge 
rib of the sunken vessel, before-mentioned, 
having pierced her bottom; secondly, tihat 
the aforesaid timber was manifestly and gra- 



Ch.IV.] RETURN TO CALCUTTA. 225 

dually deserting its position; and thirdly, that 
we enjoyed a fair prospect of being swamped. 
The pumps were, however, set a-going, and 
of the two alternatives, Davy's locker or a 
run before the wind to Calcutta, we selected 
the latter. The roaring concert of the sea 
and winds; the constant jarring of the pumps ; 
and the five hours' AUah-ing! of the lascars, 
requisite to heave up two anchors with ninety 
fathoms of cable each, left us but little dispo- 
sition for sleep. 

On the morning of the 2d, the Planet's 
head was turned towards Calcutta, and on 
the same evening we anchored once more at 
Kedgeree. The next morning, favoured by 
wind and tide, we ran up the river at the rate 
of fifteen knots an hour; at 3 p.m. we reached 
Fort William, and — after a fruitless sail of 
twelve days — 

* where we had got up, 

We did again get down ! ' 

To counterbalance in some degree our many 
contretems, we found that we had just arrived 

Vol.. II. Q 



226 FRESH DEPARTURE FOR POOREE. [Ch. IV. 

in time for the grand ball given at Grovem- 
ment House, in celebration of his Majesty's 
birth-day ; where I found the pastime of 
gliding through a punkah-fanned quadrille 
with a gentle partner infinitely more to my 
taste than cutting capers on the stormy waves 
with the romping, ricketty * Planet/ in whose 
dangerous society I was very nearly perform- 
ing a pas de trop. 

Having been thus unforeseenly thrust back 
upon the Presidency, we remained there an- 
other fortnight; when, Government having 
refused our application for a steam-passage 
to Pooree, we determined to travel d&k to 
Head-quarters. 

Accordingly, on the 6th of May— our palan- 
keens and patarras having been sent on two 
days before — a brother A. D. C. and myself 
once more started for our destination on the 
sea-coast. We travelled as far as Diamond 
Harbour in a gig (the vehicle, not the boat 
so called) ; where we embarked on board a 
beauliah, crossed the harbour, entered the 



IH] ROOP-NARAIN RIVER. 227 

Ni|t»Darain river; and, after a prosperous 
ftjiOf five hours, reached the town of Tum- 
||U I did not survey the turbid waters of 
iil!bove dangerous river with any very great 
Plplacency of retrospect, as they were asso- 
Ptd with a disagreeable accident which 
jMned to me whilst sailing on them two 
ilt ftgo. I was making a little trip for 
Ik&ge of air— -not for change of elements 
irhen, heedlessly standing on the taffrail 
^t the boat was tacking, I was knocked 
•rboard by the boom. The stream was 
iiUen into a fierce torrent by the rains ; 
nooted trees, drowned cattle, and even an 
phant, carried away by the inundation, 
■kted past our vessel. However, a better 
pthan drowning, doubtless, awaits me; for 
ipg lightly clothed, and a practised swim* 
iTt and the boat being in stays, I reached a 
M in a few strokes, and was hauled on 
hv4 — ^^^^ ^^^^ worse for a knock on the 
MU and an invohmtary bath. 
Ouring the two days we were detained at 
klolook by the non-arrival of our baggage, 



II 



oil. IV.] ROOP-NARAIN RIVER. 227 

Roop-narain river; and, after a prosperous 
sail of five hours, reached the town of Turn- 
look. I did not survey the turbid waters of 
the above dangerous river with any very great 
complacency of retrospect, as they were asso- 
ciated with a disagreeable accident which 
occurred to me whilst sailing on them two 
years ago. I was making a little trip for 
change of air— -not for change of elements 
— when, heedlessly standing on the tafirail 
whilst the boat was tacking, 1 was knocked 
overboard by the boom. The stream was 
swollen into a fierce torrent by the rains ; 
uprooted trees, drowned cattle, and even an 
elephant, carried away by the inundation, 
floated past our vessel. However, a better 
fate than drowning, doubtless, awaits me; for 
being lightly clothed, and a prac^tised swim- 
mer, and the boat being in stays, I reached a 
rope in a few strokes, and was hauk^d on 
board — none the worse for a knock on the 
head, and an invohiutary bath. 

During the two days wo were detained at 
Tumlook by the non-arrival of our baggage, 



228 TUMLOOK. [Ch.IV. 

we were hospitably entertained by Mr. Lind- 
say, the salt agent, who has formed a little 
Eden here in the midst of the desert. Time 
did not hang heavy on our hands in a house 
where there was a well-stocked library, a 
billiard-table, mechanic and chemical labo- 
ratories, musical instruments of great variety, 
from the church organ to the Geneva snuff- 
box, (not to forget the musical glasses, upon 
which our host shewed great skill,) good cheer, 
and a hearty welcome. The above pursuits, 
with a taste for botany, horticulture, and en- 
tomology, must be efficient weapons against 
the ennui, which, without these allies, would 
inevitably overwhelm him in this unhealthy 
station, where there are only two Europeans 
besides himself, and in an office, whose 
details are neither interesting nor laborious. 
Mr. Lindsay's house is surrounded by a beau- 
tiful and scientifically-kept garden ; and is 
situated upon a slight eminence, whose formal 
declivity, giving evidence of the remains of 
fortifications, goes far to strengthen the sup- 
position entertained of the great antiquity of 
Tumlook. 



Ch.IV.] MIDNAPORE. 229 

May 7th. The weather having become dis- 
tressingly sultry, we came to the determina- 
tion to travel by night only — passing the heat 
of the day either at the stage bungalows on 
the roadside, or with some resident at the 
stations. I believe I have said before, that 
in India it is the universal and benevo- 
lent custom to entertain strangers travelling 
through a country where shelter and supplies 
are alike difficult to be obtained. 

At 10 P.M. — for not sooner would our kindly 
host permit us to leave his roof — we got 
into our palankeens, and, borne along by the 
fastest and most musical bearers that I had 
ever met with in the course of my Indian 
posting, reached Midnapore by the following 
morning at nine o'clock : I was only once 
dropped on the way ; which, considering the 
vileness of the roads, was excusable. This 
occurrence, in addition to the probable frac- 
ture of the carriage, administers to the dozing 
traveller a shock nowise inferior to that pro- 
duced by twenty turns of the electric cylinder. 
It does not, however, often happen ; for when 



230 DAK JOURNEY. [Gh. IV. 

it befalls choleric travellers-^ a race of beings 
rife in hot climates — it is apt to produce a 
reaction upon the backs of the oflfending 
bearers, pour encourager les autres— a conse- 
quence greatly productive of caution, and 
preventative of future stumbling. The prudent 
tourist will, however, keep his temper and his 
cane in subjection, and content himself with 
a verbal warning, or threats of loss of buck- 
shees ; for on the first sjonptoms of vapulative 
intentions (we hope they are rarely resorted 
to !) on the part of the Sahib, the timid bearers 
are not unlikely to take to their heels, and 
leave their posed employer to cool his own in 
the middle of an unfrequented road, under a 
temperature even more fiery than his temper. 
A few miles short of Midnapore, we en- 
countered a hurkarah bearing a note of invi- 
tation from Mr. D'Oyly, the collector of 
revenue of the district ; in whose mansion we 
accordingly passed the remainder of the day. 
The station of Midnapore is one of the most 
picturesque in India: the Civilians' houses 
are surrounded with spacious parks, or enclo- 



ClLlV.] MIDNAPORE. 231 

BureSy ornamented with fine trees ; the roads 
are, from the nature of the soil, remarkably 
good, and shaded by luxuriant avenues of the 
teak tree. A very large portion of the dis- 
trict is covered with thick bush jungle, where 
the sportsmen not unfrequeutly find the bear 
and the leopard. In the town, and indeed, 
throughout the district of Midnapore, a great 
superiority in the conformation of the dwell- 
ing-houses of the natives is remarkable ; yet 
in religious edifices — those tasteful accessories 
to Indian scenery — they fall far short of their 
northern neighbours. 

At eleven at night, after a very merry din- 
ner party, we once more took to our palan- 
keens, declining to admit as fellow-passengers 
half-a-dozen bottles of champaigne, warmly 
pressed upon us by a certain reverend and 
mercurial guest of Mr. D'Oyly. The night- 
journey was accomplished without accident 
or incident worthy of recital, except, indeed, 
that I was on one occasion suddenly and 
startlingly awakened from a doze by the 
report of a pistol (as I thought) fired close to 



232 DANTOON. [Ch.1V. 

my ear. I sat up and listened, and my only 
half-roused senses were perhaps still more 
alarmed by a sharp hissing sound, like the 
angry sibilations of the cobra-di-capella, pro- 
ceeding from behind my pillow ! Hastily call 
ing for a torch, I threw aside the cushion, and 
the first object I beheld, was. the frothy, foam- 
ing mouth of — a bottle of champaigne ! which, 
surreptitiously introduced by the above-men- 
tioned kindly clerico, and irritated by the 
jolting of the palankeen, had thus prema- 
turely ejected its cork. Taking certain ob- 
vious measures to preclude a second explosion, 
I re-corked the intruder, and slept again : a 
confederate was next morning discovered, in 
the same suspicious position, in my com- 
panion's palankeen. 

At 9 A.M. on the 9th, we reached the lonely 
stage bungalow of Dantoon, a ricketty and 
uncomfortable building, situated on the brink 
of a tank. It was with great difficulty that 
we obtained some milk and eggs for breakfast, 
and a vile curry for dinner; but our store 



Ch. IV.] BALASORE. 233 

of champaigne, which I was at some pains 
to cool, made amends for the bad cheer. 
Soon after sunset our equipages came to the 
door ; our impatient blacks pawed the ground, 
and another night's run of forty miles brought 
us to the station of Balasore, where we were 
immediately invited to share the hospitality 
of Colonel D'Aguilar, commanding a regi- 
ment of local infantry at this place. Balasore 
being only six miles from the sea, benefits in 
some degree from its refreshing breezes ; and 
the eye, accustomed to the unvarying flatness 
of Bengal scenery, is agreeably relieved by the 
view of a fine range of mountains, only seven 
miles to the west of the town, and stretching 
southwards in the direction of Madras. The 
station is now inconsiderable ; but when first 
the commerce between Europe and India was 
opened, this place was considered a sea-port 
of great value. There are, even now, extant 
the ruins of factories belonging to the Eng- 
lish, French, Danish, and Dutch nations ; 
and in the bazaar stands to this day a small 
Portugese Roman Catholic chapel. 



234 BARREPORE. [QlIV. 

Balasore was ceded to the Company by the 
Mahrattas in 1803. I cannot furnish much 
infonnation regarding the present state of its 
commerce — although, by-the-bye, I exported 
from it, myself, a considerable pigeon-pie 
and a good store of pale ale, the parting pre- 
sents of our hearty host. 

May 11 /A. At 9 A.M. we reached the stage- 
house of Barrepore, after a fatiguing journey 
of fifteen hours. The latter portion of the 
country through which we passed was very 
wild-lookiug, and bears a bad character as to 
the highway honesty of its inhabitants. Ac- 
cordingly, at every change of the bearers, I 
made some display of priming my pistols, — 
weapons for which the natives entertain a 
high respect — and nothing beyond the above 
demonstration proved necessary. 

Our hotel — ^for hotel read hovel— of this day 
was in such a dilapidated condition, that we 
were almost afraid of talking loud, lest we 
should bring down the tottering and semi- 
transparent roof upon our heads. The old 



Ch.IV.] CUTTACK. 23A 

resident Hindoo, who fulfilled the offices of 
bearer, kitmutgar, and cook, was of a piece 
with the building : those who have travelled 
that road will recollect the tall, emaciated 
figure, with his long arms and legs so bent at 
the joints, as to give him the appearance of 
an overgrown grasshopper. The pigeon-pie 
proved a friend in need, for a half-starved 
fowl * was all the store ' that our foraging 
party could levy for us. 

Starting, as usual, about sunset, we jour- 
neyed forward, and arrived at the town and 
station of Cuttack by breakfast-time the next 
morning. As I shall have another opportu- 
nity of describing this place, I shall now be 
content with saying that we took refuge, dur- 
ing the heat of the day, with Mr. Stockwell^ 
the Commissioner for the Cuttack district, 
who occupies the handsome Grovernment 
house ; and as soon as the fiery chariot of the 
' nimium propinqui solis ' had turned the 
corner of the horizon, we minions of the moon 
resumed our equipages and our march. The 
road from Cuttack to Pooree-Juggernauth, 



236 NIGHT JOURNEY. [Cli.IV. 

conducting through a tract greatly liable to 
inundation, is raised upon a bund, or embank- 
ment, nearly the whole distance of fifty-two 
miles, and for a considerable extent is shaded 
by fine old trees. In its construction, the 
British government benefited by the hand- 
some contribution of 16,000/. presented for 
that purpose by a certain pious Hindoo of 
rank in Calcutta. 

During the night we encountered a north- 
wester, accompanied, as usual, with violent 
thunder and rain, which latter beat with such 
violence against the doors of our palankeens, 
that it was in vain to deny it admittance, and 
we were well wetted before its attacks ceased. 
The torches too were extinguished, and the 
road rendered dangerously slippery ; yet the 
patient bearers, exhorting each other in their 
chorus, persevered, and, with diflBlculty and 
labour hard, brought us safely to Pooree, 
which is three hundred and eleven miles from 
Calcutta, by 7 o'clock on the morning of the 
13th of May. 



237 



CHAPTER V. 

POOREE-JUGGE^NAUTH ON THE CUTTACK 

COAST. 

At the distance of five miles from the town, 
the traveller first catches sight of the far- 
famed temple of Juggernauth, rising with its 
ill-proportioned and ungainly tower above the 
ancient and luxuriant trees ; and at the same 
time, if the wind be favourable, the angry lash- 
ing of the surf on the beach comes upon his ear. 
The town and bazaar are pretty extensive — 
containing between five and six thousand 
houses ; and the main street, one hundred 
yards in width, and constituted chiefly of the 
habitations of the ministers of the temple, leads 
directly up to that stupendous building. 

Passing through the town, I observed se- 
veral fine tanks, in which crowds of men, 
women, and children were bathing — yet one 
of the bearers assured me that he had often 
seen large alligators raise their heads above 
the surface when the weather was sultry. 



238 FAKIRS. [CIuV. 

Like other holy places, Juggemauth is in- 
fested by those sanctified vagabonds, Fakirs, 
with the numerous branches of Gossains, 
Byraghees, Suniassees, &c., into which their 
important profession ramifies. At every turn, 
along every dead wall, under each banyan or 
peepul tree, the naked, squalid and painted 
bodies, matted and sunburnt hair, and dis- 
torted limbs of this race of Gymnosophists 
disgust the eye of the traveller; whilst his 
ear is deafened by their vociferated and 
often insolent demands for charity. My 
heart and purse were always alike closed 
against these chartered mendicants, who 
reap harvest sufficient from the superstition 
of their fellow-countrymen. 

Immediately below the town, the line of 
vegetation and verdure suddenly ceases, and 
is succeeded by a huge bank of dazzling sand, 
extending down to the sea, a distance of 
about a mile. Along the rather elevated crest 
of this accumulation of arid and barren ma- 
terial is scattered the European colony, con- 
sisting of some fifteen bungalows and a line 



Cb. v.] SANDS OF POREE. 239 

of bells-of-arms for the sepoy detachment. 
Many of the habitations belong to the English 
officials at Cuttack, who are in the habit of 
repairing hither during the very hot weather, 
for change of air. Bad accommodation — diffi- 
culty of procuring provisions — (beef of course 
is, owing to the worshipful nature of the cow, 
rarely attainable) a deep and drifting sand, 
which renders walking impossible, and riding 
an act of cruelty; and which insinuates its 
tormenting particles into both bed and board 
— a climate, owing to its situation two degrees 
nearer the equator, even hotter than Calcutta 
—all these desagr^mens are cheerfully con- 
fronted for the counterbalancing advantage of 
the sea-breeze, which blows fresh and con- 
stantly during this monsoon ; and is, to lungs 
accustomed to inhale the jungle-tainted air of 
Cuttack, refreshing and salubrious in the; ex- 
treme. Among the sand-hills along the beach 
are several curious and extensive religious 
edifices*— many of them, from their being 
surrounded and veiled by strong walls slop- 
ing outwards towards the base, bearing the 



240 TEMPLES OF PObREE. ^<ih^. 

appearance of small fortresses. WMtin'raese 
enclosures there is in some cases ah attite^ 
at introducing vegetation, a few stUiit^ 
shrubs rearing their heads above the pafipet. 
Those temples that are not furnished ' vriih 
walls are for the most part buried up to their 
domes in drifting sand, which accumulated 
so rapidly, that the whole station woiild be 
swallowed up, but for the measures takfen t6 
repel its inroads. One of these co^ iritits*, 
near my bungalow, bears the init>bsiJig title 

of * Duara Swarga' or Gate of HeiVeii V ^^ 
the stealthy glimpses, that I sometimes caught 
through the half closed entrance, of aihiortific 
group of diabolical idols; the stirange, unhal^- 
lowed noises startling the drowsy ear of night-; 
and this unequal and lurid flashes of light 
glimmering from within the inclosure when 
all around was darkness, gave this sj^ot^ 
to Christian senses at least— more the u]^- 
pearance of the Descensus Avemi ; and 'helT,^' 
accordingly, was the diametrically cotittaist'- 
ing name by which it was familiarly kri(h^n 
amongst our party. 



cilV.] surf-boats. 241 

The beach of Pooree is most uninteresting ; 
there is not a pebble or shell of any kind 
to be seen ; nor any object worth inspection 
between the Black Pagoda, sixteen miles 
north of Pooree, and the Chilka lake as 
many miles to the southward. In the article 
of fish, however^ the coast abounds, no less 
than sixty-one species having been enume- 
rated. Mullets, whiting, oysters, lobsters and 
crabs are to be had for the gathering; but 
they are not to be compared to their name- 
sakes in England. 

The surf breaks with such violence on this 
shore during the monsoon, that no European 
boat could live for an instant amongst its curl- 
ing breakers — communication with ships from 
the shore being carried on, as at Madras, by 
the native surf-boats. Of these there are two 
kinds, the mussoola, and the catamaran. The 
former is deep, spacious, and extremely light, 
not a particle of iron being used in its con- 
struction : the planks are sewed together with 
thongs, and the sides, though tough, are so 

Vou n. R 



elastic, that they yield visibly wheix stmck by 
ft sea. The catamarao> which is not calculated 
to carry anything but the amphibious being 
who guides it, is a sort of raft, formed merely 
of three long timbers rudely bound togokher 
with ropes. 

Ships bound to Calcutta make a point of 
sighting the Black Pagoda, or the temple of 
Juggemautb, which form convenient and last- 
ing landmarks. Thus, as residents in the 
neighbourhood of a high road extract amuse-^ 
ment and interest from the .coaches and oth^ 
eiquipages daily passing in review, so do the 
inhabitants of Pooree in like manner make 
the appearance of a ship in the roads an im- 
portant epoch in the monotony of their exist- 
ence. Proud is the fortunate man who first 
detects the sail in the distant offing; and 
prouder still, as well as richer, is he who 
having backed with a bet his opinion as to 
the number of the stranger's masts, pockets 
the gold-mohur confirmative of the accuracy 
€^ his judgment. Many of the passing shipji; 



^' 







Oh v.] PASTIMES— LUXURIES— SPORTS, rr ft43 

exchange signals with the harbour-master of 
Pooree, giving their names, and sometimes 
heads of news from England. 
. During the pilgrimage of Head-quarters at 
Juggemauth, — occupying six weeks,— occa« 
sional trips to the Chilka lake, the Black 
Pagoda, or the temple itself, were the almost 
only occurrences varying the uniform dulness 
of our daily routine of employments. A ma- 
tutinal jog through the fatlioniless sand on a 
pony, and an evening ditto on an elephant, 
constituted our only exercise. A billiard- 
table, which might have been mistaken for 
a model of the Himalaya mountains, was our 
only recreation ; and a dish of oysters our 
only luxury in a country luxurious par ex- 
oellence. 

. At Pooree glass-windows and punkahs are 
rare exotics ; books still rarer ; and the scar- 
dty of game, together with tlie heaviness of 
the sand, renders the sport of shooting un- 
equal to the labour. A few wild ducks, and 
still wilder antelopes, were the extent of the 

R2 



244 POOREE. tCluV. 

spoils obtained in the chase, even by our 

^ joo'i 3 fit 



crafty poaching old Shikkaree, who made 

; J i i i , I l t J Vt^ 

nothing of creeping a league or two on all 
fours in order to obtain the chance of a shot. 
In the jungles more inland^ however, the tiger 
and leopard roam unmolested by the English 
sportsmen; but these proscribed animals often 
fall victims to the ingenuity of the natives, 

'■ i J i. ■ ' i 

who, on producing the skin of any destructive 
wild beast, are entitled to a reward from the 
Collector of the district. One of these daring 
hunters, who had been unusually success- 
ful, brought to Head-quarters, one ipoifning, 
two tiger-skins and several leopard-skins, the 
fruits of five weeks' diligence. He carried 
with him the weapon employed in his * dread- 
ful trade ' — more worthy of the epithet than 
that of the samphire gatherer, methinks — 
and exhibited to us the method in which it 
was used. It was a large cross-bow formed 
of double bamboo, fitted into a solid stock, 

and furnished with a long arrow, or aRB^ffierii 

_' ... ■ . < - 

short javelin armed with a barbed paiitt^ at 



Gh.V.] A TIGER-TRAP. 24o 

v.ut /'i ■ ■■ 
the root of which was tied a spongy substance 

saturated with a poisonous gum. The united 

strength of the Shikkaree and his assistant, 

howbeit artfully applied, barely sufficed to 

. . I ! J • t 

draw the string to the lock: this being at 
length accomplished, the weapon was laid on 
the ground, and a cord, attached to the trigger 
and crossing the supposed path of the tiger, 
was fastened to a peg firmly fixed in the earth 
in front of the bow. On striking this thread, 
tbe arrow was projected with a force that 
would have carried it half, if not quite through 
the Body of a maii; and so virulent is the 
poison employed, that the archer related that 
tlie wounded animal rarely moves a hundred 

* 

yards from the spot before he drops and dies' 
In the skins he showed us, the wounds ap- 
peared generally about the region of the 

s 

shoulder, which is the most mortal point. 




346 TEMPLE OF JUOOERNAUTH. [Cb* % 

The great temple of Juggemauth— -althougb, 
at some distance, and particularly fircMa the 
sea view, it presents an imposing appearance 
~-is, on a closer inspection, neither remark- 
able for its architecture, nor the materials of 
whiili it is composed; the latter being rough 
utone overlaid with a coating of Coarse chu- 
nam. The khetr^ chief tower, and other 
minor buildings connected with it, are com- 
prised within a waU surrounding a platform 
raised high above the ground and no. less 
than six hundred and fifty feet in length. 
The height of the tower is two hundred feet 
According to ancient Brahmanical records 
preserved in the buildings the temple of Sri 
Jeo, or Juggemauth, existed many c^ituries 
before Christ; was destroyed and rebuilt sun- 
dry times, and was lastly restored, in a.d. 
1198, by Rajah Bhim Deo, of Orissa, who 
is said to have expended nearly five hundred 
thousand pounds on the work. Within its holy 
precincts many inferior deities are provided 
with lodgings and attendants : but the most 
revered of the divine occupants are Jugger- 



O..YJJ PILGRIMS. . 247. 

nauth (the Lord of the World), an alias of 
thfii many-n&]|iQd Vishnu ; Buldeo his bro- 
tber» and their sister, the saffron- coloured, 
^ubhadra. 

. These personages are only twice a year 
indulged in an airing, which is fortunate, as a 
team of fifteen hundred men is required to, 
4r«g each of their carriages. The grand cere- 
mony of the installation of the idol on hi% 
trluinphal car, styled the Rath Jatra, will take 
place next month. The usual influx of pil- 
grims at this epoch is immense: crowds of 
yotaties are already dissembled in the towui 
gr are wearily plodding their way towards 
this Mecca of their hopes. But their num- 
bers decrease yearly, and the sanctity of 
Juggernauth wanes in proportion to the pro- 
gpress of civilization in India. The mad fana- 
ticism which formerly led hundreds of volun- 
tiary victims to immolate themselves beneath 
the wheels of the idol's car — an ofiering which 
is said to extract a ghastly smile of delight 
from the blood-loving Dagon — is now much 



dA8 TEMPLE OF JUOGERNAUTH. t^'V. 

r 

flobered down. Sterling mentions' f bf&t/'diifl% 
the fmir years in which he witnysod 'tEtfe 
ceremony, Juggernauth was only propitiated 
with three sacrifices ; and that these wretches, 
being afflicted with some grievous bodily com- 
plaints, merely embraced that method of rid* 
ding themselves of a miserable existence, a^ 
preferable to the more common*place suicide 
of h<u.ging or droning. 

The .«n«e number of pBgrto. *,a.ttUy 
resprting to Pooree is said to be about one hun* 
dred and twenty'thousand, many of whom are 
destined never to return. Thousands of these 
poor wretches die from famine, over-fatigue 
during the journey, or from the pernicious 
climate of the rainy season ; and their corpses, 
thrown on the sands near the English station, 
are either burnt, or left to be devoured by the 
troops of Pariah dogs, jackals, and vultures, 
with which thi3 place, so rich in food for 
them, swarms. The chaplain of the diiltrict 
assured me that he had himself seen, on the 
space of half an acre of ground, as many as 



-flMt] 



249 



^^.it^uQudted and fifty bodies, with twice as 
if^f^nj, oi ihe above-named scavengers fighting 
PXW, ti^i^ir horrid feast, 

< At'Ui^luily mumbled the bonea of the dead, 
When they scarcely could rite from the spot vrheic they fed I ' 

,.fhe blood-curdling picture, of which these 
two lin^ are only a small part, and which must 
have been penned by Byron with true zest, I 
piyself saw realized, in all its horrible details^ 
^ 9ihurtpore ; and I think I could have for- 




lushed an ingriedient that would havB giyea 
ff9en additional seasoning to the noble go^t'i 
already overflowing cs^ldron of horrors^ . H9 
has, indeed, most vividly portrayed the car- 
nival of the wild dogs, the wolf, and the vul- 
ture beneath ' the leaguered wall ;' but had 
hOf as I have, shudderingly watched the gaunt 
and famished swine rooting and revdiling with 
gory snouts among the "tombless dead,' I 
thinks he would have devoted ; a. couplet, ta 
immortalize their deeds ! 

We had left Pooree before the Rath Jattra 
took place ; but I witnessed some part of the 
minor and prefatory cer^nony of bathing the 
idols. On hearing that they had been brought 
out of the temple, and that they were now 
exhibited to the admiring gaze of the multi- 
tude who had travelled so far to pay their 
respects, I mounted an elephant, and with 
two or three others of our party repaired to 
the open market-place, opposite the platform 
of the temple. Winning our way carefully 
through the assembled crowds,, we took post 



.cilVO religious ceremony. :2fil 

in a convenient spot, our exalted situation 
enabling us to see over the heads of the 
pedestrian gazers. There is no conveyance 
through a mob like an elephant; for, although 
extremely and amiably careful of the lives 
and limbs of the pigmies surlx)unding him, his 
progress is sure and irresistible. What a conr 
yenient look-out place one of these animaU 
would piake for a general directing the move? 
ments of an army ; md as a perambulatory 
hustings, how invaluable would he be to m 
haranguer of a populace I 

Their godships were formed up in line on 
an elevated terrace within the enclosure, tjnd 
protected from the night dewid by an exten* 
give and gaudy canopy of many-coloured 
cloths. The evening was dark, and at inter- 
vals blue lights were thrown up to enable the 
spectators to view the ceremony; but th^ 
idols being almost constantly hidden by a 
forest of chowries and hand-punkahs— dili* 
gently agitated by the attendant Brahmins 
to prevent the flies and musquitos from; invad^ 
Ing theur sacred nOses» — ^Vre sent a polite 



!952 jimoERKirtjfl^J idb.-^. 



meB6B:ge to the Baj-Goni, or chief pri^^t; 
questing that he would cause the officials to 
open out for an instant to the right and Im, 
is >order to afford us the satisfaction of - con- 
templating the expressive countenaneei^ of 
the worshipful trio. Our embassy succeJeded; 
the crowd fell back from before them ; two 
brilliant lights were illumined, and we saw 
distinctly three frightful wooden faces; oif the 
tespectiTe colours of black, browtr/ and 7I6I- 
low ; the lower portions of the figures b^in^ 
okMSely swathed in cloth wrap|>6rs, " ' 

J , ! .:•> ^ ■ . .■:....•■■-. 

); The fidlo wing day the idols were again con- 
signed to their niches in the temple. Upon 
thb occasion, it is the annual custom for Jug-^ 
gemauth to declare himself to be en petite 
sant6, from the effects of a severe cold — con- 
sequent, probably, upon his bath— which con- 
tinues to afflict him until the day of the grand 
ceremony, when, by the wise treatment of his ' 
physicians, he is restored to his usual good 
health 1 

' /To such a length as this is carried the blind 



(P^W '^'^^ BATH-JATTRA. 263 

^wperstition. of this simple people ; and it 4f( 
,<^iefully nourished and fostered by the crafty 
Br^hn^ns^ who doubtless secure to themselves 
i^jl^gie,share of the offerings paid at the sbrio^e 
pf the idolized but helpless King Log. Many 
as. notorious a ^/ocA:-head as friend Jugger-^ 
Qauth, however, receives — without the ex- 
cising plea of religious superstition —^ the 
obsequious homage and adoration of joaorfe 
en|igl|tened idolaters than the unsophisticated 

Hindoo I . « 

At the festival of the Rath Jattra, the idofe 
are conducted in state to visit their country- 
s^ty one mile and a half from Poore^^a 
jpjarney of three days. By all accounti^, the 
method of inducting their worships from tbe^ 
temple to their raths, qr cars, is not remark^, 
abjiy ceremonious. Ropes being fasjtened 
rQund their throats, they are dragged 'neck* 
apd-Jiieels ' down the grand steps, through the 
mud> and are finally hauled by the same gal« 
lows-like process into their respective vehin^ 
cles, where they are decorated by the priiBStSy! 
ami welcomed, by shout& of. admiration aiid 



fiinmph from the ifonatical miiltitiide. Hie 
reths, on which the monBter-deities are drawn, 
are of lofty and mamiye dimensions and 
dumsy architecture : that of Sri Jeo is nearly 
fprty-fiye feet in height, has a platform of 
thirty-five feet square, and moves upon six^* 
teen wheels of solid timber. 
^ At first sight it appears even worse than 
strange and inconsistent, that the same go* 
femment which encourages the religious en* 
deavours of hundreds of missionaries to con* 
v6rt the Hindoos to the Christian fiedth, riiould 
virtually countenance (as the cavillers against 
the Company on this much-canvassed point 
insist that it does) the most revolting idolatry^ 
by making it a source of revenue. It is certain 
that the £. I. Company, by the pilgrim tax, 
secure to theolselves an annual average amount 
of fifteen thousand pounds ; that the coUec* 
tions are made by the Brahmins, and that in 
return for this extortion — startling fact! — a 
Christian government agrees to keep in repair, 
and adorn with Bilks and broad-cloths> a pagan 
idol; and to support^ for the private use o£ 



THV PILGRIM TAX. MA 

Ibe graven image, a stud of elep)iapt3 ^ au4 
homm I 

1. 1 The defenders of the system, (]rn the othei^ 
hmiidy contend that the interferenice of the^ 
Clompany ii» salutaty in every respect ; that i^ 
eraitrola a rapacious and unprincipled priest- 
hood by depriving them of an immense re-r 
Tchue; and that the mode pursued is the on€^ 
best calculated to bring about the final Bupw 
pressionof the idol. It is, indeed, manifest^ 
that taxatioA ;.is anything but encouraging to 
the thing. taxed ; and it is obvious to every 
one, that open and violent opposition to a ritei 
S9; firmly rooted in the religious prejudices of 
thi^ natives might shake the allegiance of oup 
Jitndoo sepoys, and thereby involve even the 
toss of India* 

• At Pooree, where there is so great a con- 
gregation of Brahmins, whose superstition 
wid avarice alike prompt them to uphold the 
barbarous and inhuman, but to them lucra-^ 
tive custqm, it is not surprising that the 
futtee $hould flourish. The enactment put 
finrth for its abolition by the English goveroiT 



256 THE SUTTEE. IduY. 

ment, supported as it is by the natural love of 
life and dread of pain so deeply rooted in the 
bosom of those for whose protection it is 
ordained, has no doubt materially operated to 
diminish the number of the sacrifices ; yet 
has it not given so decided a check to the 
unnatural rite as might have been expected ; 
and heroic widows, perhaps stimulated by 
the opposition of the higher powers, daily 
contrive to grill themselves under the very 
nose of the government which has been so 
long and so disinterestedly endeavouring to 
snatch them from the burning. 

If, however, disconsolate widows are pre- 
vented by one law from going to heaven with 
their first and, according to Hindoo customs, 
sole husband, it is but just, methinks, that a 
further edict be framed, enabling the willy- 
nilly surviving lady to take to herself, with- 
out consequent loss of caste or character, a 
second lord, to solace her during her invo- 
luntary sojourn in this vale of tears. 

During my rambles in India, I never 
chanced to witness,— within distinct eye^range 



QlV.J HINDOO FUNERAL RITES 267 

at least, an instance of this savage ritual ; 
though on my passage down the Ganges^ a 
white column of smoke rising above the trees 
from the burning chitta, accompanied by a dis- 
tant din of instruments and voices, has more 
than once been pointed out to me as the apo- 
theosis of some loving pair. One evening at 
Pooree, whilst riding with a companion on an 
elephant along the beach, we descried a large 
fire at a distance, and guessing it to be a 
suttee by its vicinity to the * gate of heaven,' 
we proceeded towards it. On reaching the 
spot, I was, I trust, not sorry to find that the 
body which was undergoing cremation had 
died previous to the ceremony ; and that the 
CTOwd who were singing and gesticulating 
round the pyre were merely performing the 
last offices for a deceased relative, instead of, 
as I had at first imagined, drowning by their 
rude music the agonized cries of a living 

victim. 

Pushing our elephant near to the fire, we 
inquired of an old emaciated Brahmin, who 
seemed to take a leading part in the cere- 

VOL. II. s 



258 POOREE. [C»lV. 

mony, ' Who it was who had gone to heaTen V 
He answered readily, and indeed garruloasly, 
that it was his mother^ who had died the 
same morning. On our expressing our won- 
derment that he, who appeared to be seventy- 
five or eighty years old, should have had a 
mother alive so lately, he saidj * My mothi^ 
was five twenties and foulr years oldr she 
came thirty years ago, being at the point of 
death, to Juggernauth, to die on holy ground, 
but recovered, and lived until this day.' The 
old man then rejoined the group round the 
pile, and re-commenced clapping his hands, 
and joining in the shouted chorus of * Hurri 
bole ! hurri bole ! ' an invocation, I believe, 
to Vishnu. The whole party seemed to me 
to be actuated by a strange sort of merriment, 
very foreign to the occasion ; and there was 
one callous-looking assistant^ who^ probabLy 
with a view to hasten the destruction of the 
corpse, continually employed himself in strik- 
ing it with a long bamboo, and turning it 
over, like a beef-steak upon a gridiron. They 
were extremely economical of their fuel, 



Oh.V0 HINDOO FUNERAL RITES. 269 

throwing the wood on in email quantities^ 
and leaving the pile not more than a foot 
high. 

The scene was altogether wild, horrific, and 
yet picturesque. The evening was dark and 
stormy, and thunder-clouds were flying 
athwart the heavens in all directions : the 
angry surf dashed and foamed within a few 
feet of the sand-hill on which was raised the 
pile^ whose bright blaze threw out in strong 
relief the wild-looking figures of the group^ 
who, with their white garments floating in 
the winds, were singing and dancing with 
the most fantastical gestures round the 
flame. 

As a back-ground to the picture, the white 

cupolas and domes of the ' gate of heaven,' 
embedded in dusky foliage, were alternately 
lighted up by the red glare of the funeral 
pyre and the silvery and fitful gleams of 
the lightning; and still further in the dis- 
tance might be faintly discerned the snowy 
tower of the great temple of Juggernauth. 
On the 8th of June the Hattrass, pilot- 

s 2 



260 POOBEE. , [Ch.Y. 

brig, made her appearance off the coa&t for the 
purpose of transporting a detachment of thq 
Head-quarters to Calcutta ; a second division 
being destined towards the latter end of the 

month, to accompany the Commander-in-chief 

• 

by land to the Presidency. The surf ran so 
high the next day, that it was not considered 
safe for the party to embark ; but on the foU 
lowing evening, its fury having somewhat 
abated, the passengers and baggage were 
securely stowed in the bottom of the mus- 
soola ; the buoyant craft was launched, and 
bravely surmounting — ^though sorely buffeted 
— the impetuous attacks of three successive 
lines of surf, finally reached the brig in 
safety. One sea, taking her on the quarter, 
broke on board, drenching to the skin, all 
the passengers, one of whom was a lady^. 
and sweeping five of the crew overboard. 
The tenure of these latter on the boat is far 
from secure, as they sit on the transverse 
beams flush with the gunwale, and have only 
their paddles, which are fixtures, to hold 
on by. 



Ch.Vj NOCTURNAL BATHING. 261 

' In i*etuming, the mussoola was thrown on 
Hei* beam-6ndd, and nearly the whole of the 
cr6^ went overboard. Being, however, all 
poweiful men, expert swimmers, and unem- 
l)arrassed with excess of clothing, they ac- 
count this accident an affair of little moment ; 
ahd in the event of their failing to recover 
their boat, they are picked up by the attend- 
ant catamarans— or by the sharks, which 
abound on this coast. 

Oh the occasion of a grand nocturnal 
bathing ceremony, held at the great tank 
called the Indra Dam&n, I went with a 
party of three or four others to witness the 
j<pectacle. The walls surrounding the pool 
and a cluster of picturesque pavilions in its 
dehtre were brilliantly lighted up with hun- 
dreds of cheraugs, or small oil-lamps, casting 
a flickering lustre upon the heads and shoul- 
ders of about five hundred men, women, and 
children, who were ducking and praying, A 
corps perdu, in the water. As I glanced over 
thie figures nearest to me, I discovered float- 
ing among the indifferent bathers two dead 



362 POOBEE. [Ch.V. 

bodies, which had either been drowned in the 
confusion, or had purposely come to die on 
the edge of the sacred tank; the cool and 
apathetic survivors taking not the slightest 
notice of their soulless neighbours^ 

Juw I6th. Having projected a trip to the 
Black Pagoda — ^situated sixteen miles north 
of Pooree near the village of Kan4rae,-^an4 
having previously sent forward some tents^ 
servants and provisions, Colonel D, and my- 
self started for that place late in the evening, 
in our palankeens. The night proving rainy 
and tempestuous, our progress was somewhat 
retarded : at 2 a.m. however we forded the river 
Kusb^dra ; and at a little before four o'clock, 
reached our encampment near the Pagoda. 
The road lay the whole way over a plain of 
deep sand slightly sprinkled with some un- 
happy and intrusive weed ; but in the imme- 
diate neighbourhood of the temple the scenery 
is rather improved by the undulating form of 
the ground, and the fresh verdure of several 
patches of jungle. Part of this was pnce 



Cb.V.] TRIP TO THE BLACK PAGODA. 263 

the garden attached to the residences of the 
Fakirs or ministers, whose liandy-work has 
been once more reclaimed by the wilderness. 

After breakfast, having summoned for our 
guidance an old hirsute fakir, — who seemed 
to haunt the ruin like the ghost of its by-gone 
prosperity — we rambled over this curious and 
wonderftil edifice ; the weather, fortunately 
for our antiquarian labours^ being cloudy and 
cool. 

The Black Pagoda, or Temple of the Sun, 
WW built by Narsing Deo Langora, Rajah of 
Orissa, as far back as the year a.d. 1241. 
The main body, or sanctum sanctorum, has 
been alm^ost totally destroyed — by lightning 
9» they relate — the only portion remaining 
upright amid the general wreck being one 
lofty shapeless pinnacle of stone, which sur- 
prisipgly retains its erect position, although 
its height is about one hundred and thirty 
feet, its base extremely small, and the inclin- 
ation of tliB whole mass decidedly out of the 
perpendicular. The ante-chamber, however, 
rr^ Ijarge square building, — is still in exciel- 



264 THE BLACK ¥AQOJXA^» • - [Ch. V. 

lent preservation, notwithstandmg tto d«prer 
dations and wanton ravages of thiS'Mahrattas^ 
who barbarously purloined the. «tone: to erect 
their own paltry temples, and even (estpacted . 
most of the iron clamps, u^ed^ instead j^ 
cement, to fasten together the huge materials 
of the building. These same savages, whose 
destructive ' trail ' may be traced throughout 
all India, and who possessed the province of 
Orissa for many years antecedent to its ces- 
sion to the Company, have also 'mutilated, 
defaced and overthrown many of the statues, 
ornaments, and gateways of the edifice. 

The Brahmins/ too, of Pooree, assisting in 
the general pillage, carried away from hence 
an elegant column — about thirty-five feet 
high, formed of a single shaft of black ba- 
salt, and of the most graceful proportions and 
architecture — to adorn their own temple of 
Juggernauth. In its present situation, in 
front of that heavy clumsy tower, it is quite 
out of place. Its original position was in 
front of the eastern gateway of the Black 
Pagoda. This approach was flanked bv two 



Ch.V.] SING DURWASU OR LION GATE. 366 

coloesal figures, on high pediments, repre- 
senting a huge lion — whose countenance is 
the Tery quintessence of ferocity — trampling 
upon and subduing an elephant, which cowers 
under its conqueror. 




The group, exclusiTe of its base, appears to 
be about ten feet high by twelve in length. 
One of these gateposts is alone erect, its fellow 
having been thrown down. The perpetrators 



900 THE BLACK PAGODA. [CIl V. 

of this mischief must have been at some pains 
to accomplish their object, as it is formed — 
as are the supporters of the other entrances 
-H)f one solid block of red granite. The 
foregoing sketch gives 9a idea of the re? 
maining gatepost ; and the well-dressed figure 
on the right is our coQductpr, the Fakir. 

At the western gate lie, ovf^hrown, two 
gigantic horses in stone, richly caparisoned, 
and represented in the act pf rearing and 
treading beneath their boo^ the strangely- 
distorted figure of a man armed with a sword 
and shield. Although stunted busbi^ and 
noisome weeds have almost entirely over- 
grown these statues, and the monsoons of 
nearly six centuries have vented their fury 
upon them, the edge of the sculpture is still 
sharp and decided, — even the chains pf the 
bridles, and the studs and ornaments of the 
trappings remaining uninjured. The same 
may ha remarked thfoughput the nppierous 
rich carvings of the temple ; a^ pecuUafity 
which may be perhaps attril^utable |» the 
dryness ojf the sandy soit 



Ch. v.] THE ANTI-CHAMB£B» 267. 

On another side of the pagoda I discovered^ 
rolled over among heaps of huge stones, 
and prickly thickets the two supporters of 
another gateway. One was much defaced;, 
but the other, in good preservation, pour-r 
trayed an elephant, ornamented with rich 
housings, and holding in its curled proboscis 
the struggling figure of a man*^a most spirited 
eomposition. 

The fourth entrance led from the anter. 
chamber to the main temple ; but it has been 
i)early closed up by the fall of that building. 
An immense mound of ruins, overgrown with. 
copse«wood, attests the stupendous propor- 
tions pf the fallen edifice. 

The interior of the still-existing chamber is. 
a square pf about sixty feet diameter; the 
walls about the same in height, and nearly, 
twenty feet thick. The dome is conical, and 
its arch artfully formed by large stones pro- 
jecting over each other until they approaek 
near enough at the apex to be connected by. 
an enormous keystone of granite. 
; The floor ia^ quite unaccountably, covered 



208 THE BLACK PA6bi>A^ [Ch. V. 

with a confused pile of large blocks of stoike, 
some of them twelve feetlotog by six feet m 
diameter; and amongst theni are fi^ev^ral solid 
bars of iron, eighteen feet in l6ngth and nfearty 
a foot square. That they must have fatteii is' 
apparent ; but to what purpose such massive 
materials could have been applied is ex- 
tremely problematical. It his been, indeed, 
conjectured that they might h^e formed the 
flot>r of an intermediate story ; but, as there 
are no windows or other means of admitting 
light and air to the upper part of the dome, 
this surmise is not borne out by probability. 
^'Myriads of wild pigeons and bats occupy 
the dark interior of the lofty cupola; and 
among the heaped ruins of the main tower a 
family of bears and a colony of porcupines 
have found a retreat. 

Being armed with guns, we tried to provoke 
Bruin from his den ; but, at home or not, he 
made no answer to our summons. The Fakir 
related that on a former occasion two English 
visitors were more succcessful in a like at- 
tempt : damp straw being ignited at the 



Ch.V.l OB TEMPLE OP THE SUN. 269 

mouth of the cave, which is not more than 
three feet wide iu the bore, the sturdy pa- 
triarch of the ursine family, smoked beyond 
endurance, made a sudden sally from his 
stronghold; one of the besiegers, stepping 
back, missed his footing, and fell down some 
feet among the masses of sculptured stone; 
and the bear, bent upon following up his ad- 
vantage, was shot through the head by the 
second sportsman, who had, with consum*- 
mate generalship, seized a position just above 
the gorge of the cavity. 

The beauty of this Temple of the Sun is 
marred by numerous obscene figures and 
groups, rendering it unfit for any more prof 
minent situation than the lone and savagei 
spot where it stands. Those which fill the 
niches on the exterior sides of the edifice are 
as large as life ; on the lintels of the door- 
ways they are minute; beyond the remarki 
that some of the statues would scarcely have 
been unworthy of Canova, these strange fea- 
tures of the Black Pagoda are totally inde- 
scribable. 



J70 THE BLACK PAGODA, [Ch.T. 

A HctUptor of ho mean art and taste must 
have been employed upon the cornice and 
ttther ornamental parts of the temple ; the 
scrolls of leaves and flowers being remarkably 
easy and beautiful, and the execution dis- 
played in the representation of elephants, 
boars, bulls, cranes, &c., extremely spirited. 
Some of the female figures are especially 
graceful ; although the shape is, perhaps, 
somewhat caricatured. 




I give a pretty exact sketch of one of them 
which I found half way up the roof snugly 



Ch.V.] ITS ORIOIK, 371 

sheltered by a projecting eave. It is in alto re- 
lievO) as are all the statues occupying niches. 

By clambering up one of the deeply'-cdrved 
angles of the roof I succeeded in attaining a 
situation within a few feet of the melon-shaped 
mass which crowns the summit^ from whence 
I enjoyed an extensive view of sand- plains, 
ocean, and jungle. 

The elephant appears to be the animal 
most in vogue for ornamenting the cornices ; 
hundreds of these picturesque beasts, in every 
possible attitude, being disposed throughout 
the building ; and there is, perhaps^ more 
skill and truth to nature displayed iii thetti 
than in any other subject of the sculpture. 
Marriage processions, and highly - wrought 
battles are likewise pourtrayed in the same 
style by way of borders. 

It is surprising that so costly an edifice 
should have been erected in so sequestered a 
situation^ a barren, sandy plain, and far fVom 
any toWn of conseqiience ; but it is thus ac- 
icounted for — the Rajiah, being afflicted with 
rheumatism^ resorted to the sea-shore, where 



272 THE BLACK PAGODA. [CkV. 

he was cured ; and he evinced his gratitude 
to the gods by building the temple on the 
spot where his malady left him. It is now 
about two miles from the sea, which is sup- 
posed to have receded considerably from this 
coast. Like many other ancient Indian build- 
ings, the Black Pagoda has been saddled with 
sundry and marvellous legends. One of the 
causes assigned for its desertion by the priest- 
hood is as follows : the summit of the Khetr 
is said to have been, in times of yore, furnished 
with a stupendous loadstone, which, attracting 
the ships passing in the roads, drew them to 
the shore, where they were wrecked. Some 
desperate foreigners, having suflFered a like 
catastrophe, stormed the Pagoda, and carried 
away the magnet. The sanctuary being thus 
defiled, the shrine was deserted by the Brah- 
mins ; and many of its ornaments removed to 
the temple of Juggernauth. 

The jungles in the neighbourhood of Ka- 
narac swarm with antelopes ; and buffalos 
are to be found in the swamps. The old 
Head-quarters' Shikkaree, who generally con- 



Ch.V.] RETUnN TO POOnEE. 273 

contrived to enrol liimsclf-^among the host of 
more requisite menials— on all rambling ex- 
peditions, succeeded in shooting one of the 
former animals^ whose exceeding wildness 
and watchfulness defied all attempts of my 
ardent companion to approach them. 

The thunder-threatening closeness of the 
atmosphere having completely spoiled our 
imported provisions, in the afternoon we took 
post on each side of the temple with our 
guns, and sending in a domestic to drive out 
the immense flocks of pigeons, soon provided 
ourselves with an extempore dinner, besides 
the enjoyment of half an hour's very pretty 
practice. 

In the dusk of the evening we resumed our 
palankeens, and returned to Pooree ; pro- 
nouncing the Black Pagoda to be — albeit 
little known — the finest specimen of Hindoo 
architecture that we had mot with in our 
peregrinations through the great continent. 

June 2(ith. This day having been fixed for 
the departure of the first section of the land- 

Vol. II. T 



274 JOURNEY TO CALCUTTA. [CluV. 

going detachment of Head-quarters for Cai^ 
cutta; and the adjutant-general^ the surgeofib 
and myself having been * told oflF' for thifi 
section, at 6 p.m. we stepped into our palan^- 
keens, and, nothing loth, commenced our 
retreat from Pooree— that dep6t of Brahmins 
and pilgrims, flies and fakirs, idols and oys- 
ters, live sands and dead bodies — leaving 
nothing behind us worthy of regret, except 
perhaps the sea-breeze. It would be un-- 
grateful, however, not to admit that almost 
every individual of the party had derived 
more or less benefit from the climate during 
our short residence on the Cuttack coast* 

Having now conscientiously accomplished 
the three great pilgrimages of BeuareS) Hurd- 
war, and Juggemauth— the two last of which 
are one thousand four hundred miles apart—* 
it only remgtins for me to regret that this per* 
formance, which would yield the Hindoo such 
vast claims to respect in this life and beati* 
tude in the life to come, will redound no more 
to my advantage — perhaps not half so much — 
as a trip to Cheltenham or Leamington ; ex^ 



Ch.V.] CUTTAOK. 276 

cept indeed that it Bccures to me the amusing 
recollectionH of a lonf? journey, and the power 
of boring and re-boring my friends hereafter 
with yet longer descriptions of it. 

A pleasant night's run of twelve hours 
brought us within sight of Cuttack, just as 
the morning-gun boomed over the waters of 
the Mahanuddy. The roads wcro greatly cut 
up by the rains ; but from the same cause 
the appearance of the country was much 
improved. The approach to the town is 
extremely striking ; a long avenue of noble 
trees leading the traveller to the bank of a 
beautiful stream, which, rushing against thd 
bold angle on which Cuttack is sittiated, is 
split into two channels, distinguished by the 
respective names of Mahanuddy and Ca*- 
jori. As Cuttack is subject to sudden and 
violent floods, the pohit of bifurcation is for^ 
tifled against the abrupt rising of the river 
by a strong stone rcvf»tment; the town is 
surrounded with luxuriant groven, and the 
swelling hills of Koorda aflbrd a pleasing 
back-ground to the prospect. 

T2 



276 CUTTACK. 



[Ch.V; 



The ferry-boats on the river were crowded, 
almost to sinking, with troops of pilgrims of 
both sexes traveUing towards Juggernauth : 
among the men there were several dreadfully 
emaciated objects ; but the women were for 
the most part in good case, and many of 
them very pretty. Passing through the town, 
I was kindly welcomed under the roof-tree of 
a young friend, who, in his lately-achieved 
capacities of magistrate and Benedict, had 
newly settled down in this Station. 

Cuttack is not considered healthy; the 
same moisture of the atmosphere which ren- 
ders the vegetation so verdant and abundant^ 
but ill according with the European constitu- 
tion. It is perhaps to counteract the bad 
effects of the damp that the native inhabit- 
ants are in the habit of smoking a very sub- 
stantial cigar, which, when it is not in use, 
they carry behind the ear, as a clerk does his 
pen. In the rivers about tfiis neighbourhood, 
lapidarian research has discovered a great 
variety of the agate family. I obtained very 
good specimens of jasper, onyx, and cornelian. 



Ch.V.] THE OORIAS. 277 

Cuttack is the Head-quarters of that useful 
tribe of men, called the Ooria bearers, who, 
being looked upon as the best and most 
trustworthy servants, are much in request 
among the English of the Presidency. Their 
masters, without fear, confide large sums of 
money to their keeping; and almost every 
little master and little miss of the rising ge- 
neration of Chowringhee* is attended by one 
of these bareheaded and almost naked, but 
very cleanly guardians. I trust that honesty 
is not necessarily associated with, or the na- 
tural offspring of intellectual dulness ; but it 
is certain that Mr. Sterling, in his interesting 
account of the province of Orissa, applies to its 
inhabitants the term of * the Boeotians of the 
East ! ' I myself attended the Cuttack Kut- 
cherric, during the examination of some wit- 
nesses deposing to an outrage committed 
amongst the hills ; and obtuse and temper- 
trying as the whole tribe of witnesses notori- 
ously is, the Laputa flapper was never more 
wanted than in this instance. 

* Portion of Calcutta exclusively inhabited by the English gentry. 



876 FORT OF BARABATI. [C*. ¥• 

June 9fith^ Cuttack. — His Excellency ar- 
jriyed from Pooree ; aud the followmg morning, 
frfter a review of a corps of native infentry, I 
M^qompanied him on a visit to the fortress 
of Barabdti, situate near the cantonments. 
It is of great antiquity, owing its foundation 
to the ancient Rajahs of Orissa. From the 
Mahomedans, who seized the country about 
the middle of the eighteenth century, it re^ 
reived several additions ; and at a later period 
it fell into the hands of the Mahrattas, from 
whom it was wrested by the English, after a 
determined resistance, in 1803 — ^by this eon- 
quest the Company obtaining possession of 
the rich province of Cuttack. In the days 
of its prosperity Barabdti must have been 
almost impregnable ; and, even in its broken^ 
down old age, its lofty ruins frown formidably 
upon the surrounding plain. The enceinte 
of the fort occupies more than a square mile 
of ground, and it is girt about with double 
walls of red pudding-stone, in the destruction 
of which the march of time has been assisted 
by the luthless hand of man, and the mate- 



Oh. v.] 0YMNA8TICH. 270 

riolB devotocl to the repair of the roadn. The 
ditch IB scarped with the Hume Mtouo, and, iu 
the widest part, in no less than two hundred 
and twenty ir.et across : it is always iUled 
with water, and is additionally fortified with 
& terrific band of alligators, who have, time 
out of mind, held hereditary sway in its dark 
cool depths ;-^a bloody Hie;j;e would be a gala 
time for these ravenous monsters. 

The Commander-in-chief having expressed 
a wish to witness the athletic*, and gladiatorial 
performances of the seapoys of tlui 3Uth infan- 
try, sixteen of the most skilled in tlieso 
sciences were drawn from the ranks, and in 
the cool of the evening riipaired to Mr. Stock- 
welPs gardcui. The place selec^ted for the 
display was a spot of soft mould about one 
hundred feet in extent ; the lilnglish spec- 
tators wc5re furnishcid with (*Jiairs under the 
surrounding trc^cis, and the circle was com- 
pleted by a crowd of the seapoys, who, 
attired in their own gracef\d undress, liad 
assembled to view the exploits of their 
companions. 



280 CUTTACK. 



£Cli.V. 



The games were opened by the sword- 
players, who, as well as the wrestlers, were 
entirely naked, with the exception of a cloth 
bound tightly round the waist, and reaching 
a few inches down the thighs. Such perfect 
models of the animal man I never beheld! 
The first two combatants, who jumped simul- 
taneously into the arena, were armed with a 
species of single-stick, shorter and heavier 
than those used in England, and covered with 
leather to qualify the efiect of the blow ; bear- 
ing in their left hands a small leathern buck- 
ler about the circumference of a dinner plate. 
After a smiling salaam, they approached each 
other very cautiously, circling round at the; 
respectful distance of ten feet, and using the 
most extraordinary and extravagant gestures 
— preliminaries which to me appeared absurd 
and unnecessary, but which an old Jemadar 
near me described as useful to awe and dis- 
tract the attention of the antagonist, and to 
gain the sun of him. 

When they at last came to blows they laid 
about them in real earnest, striking with all 



Ch.V.1 GYMNASTICS. 281 

their might, and often with both hands. The 
extreme dexterity which they displayed in 
warding with the little shield, their crafty 
feints, and the immense springs they occa- 
sionally made to avoid or surprise their ad- 
versary, drew loud plaudits from the circle. 
Towards the end of the combat, one of these 
supple fellows suddenly threw himself upon 
his knees, in order to cut at the legs of his 
opponent ; and from that apparently helpless 
position, with the quickness of lightning, 
sprung back six or eight feet to escape the 
stroke that was descending on his head. The . 
other, in attempting to retort the same ma- 
noeuvre, received a blow on the shoulder that 
echoed through the field ; upon which, at a 
signal from the Subadar directing the sports, 
the contending couple struck their swords 
and bucklers together, salaamed in token of 
amity, and swaggered out of the ring. 

The gladiators were succeeded by the wrest- 
lers, whose performances were infinitely more 
interesting. After rubbing their arms and 
shoulders with dry mould, the first adverse 



382 CUTTACK. [Ch.Y. 

eouple Stalked with inflated chests and Btrot- 
tiDg gait into the arena; and after going 
through the saiae preparatory demonstrations 
as the swordsmen, oame at last aux mains. 
The crouching posture, in which they crept 
round each otha: prior to the attack, was 
eccasionally varied by a tremendous leap, 
as if to prove the vigour of their limbs, and 
accompanied by a smart dapping noise, 
produced by striking the hollow of the hand 
ypon the muscular part of the opposite 
arm« On meeting, they placed their heads 
firmly together, like butting rams, seized each 
the other's wrist with one hand, whilst the 
other was twined round the back of the adver- 
sary's neck. In Indian wrestling a fair fall 
consists in being thrown flat on the back, a 
consummation which, owing to the extreme 
agility and suppleness of the wrestlers, is sel- 
dom accomplished, A front or side fall is not 
accounted disgraceful ; on the contrary, it is 
common for the spent combatant to throw 
himself flat upon his face in order to gain 
breath; in which position, with outspread 



Oh. v.] GYMNASTICS. 883 

arms and legs, he defies the utmost attempts 
of his adversary to turn him, like a turtle, 
upon his back. 

The most distinguished of the wrestlers was 
a youth of about twenty- two, who successively 
bore the palm from six opponents, four of 
whom were much heavier men than himself. 
He had a remarkably handsome and classical 
countenance, with a figure of perfect sym- 
metry; and as he sprung into the circus, 
looking sternly and confidently round for his 
first antagonist, I would not have wished for 
a better representation of a youthful Roman 
athlete. Loud were the applauses that sa« 
luted him from all sides, as, after the over- 
throw of five competitors, the noble fellow 
stood panting in the ring, and eagerly awaiting 
another candidate for the Olympic wreath. 

These skilful seapoys seemed to mo to un- 
derstand the mechanical application of their 
strength better than any British wrestlers that 
I have seen. The legs were brought much 
more into play ; and at the commencement of 
the bouts, when the combatants were fresh, 



284 CUTTACK, [C3h. V. 

the falls were dreadfully heavy. The young 
Roman, after a series of intricate combina- 
tions which I could not trace, twice threw an 
opponent heavier than himself quite over his 
head, the faller coming to the ground, on both 
occasions, upon his crown ; and by this same 
opponent the youth was himself thrown in the 
same style, and with a violence that extorted 
a groan from his well-wishers. He, neverthe- 
less alighted upon his feet, and soon after 
threw his man— a perfect Dares in stature—: 
fairly upon his back. 

I was much struck by the great similarity of 
make in the several seapoys who contended — : 
the chief peculiarities in their form being the 
immense expansion of chest, breadth of shoul- 
der, flatness and hoUowness of back, and ex- 
treme smallness of waist. In their persons 
the strength of the lion and the litheness of 
the serpent are wonderfully united. In. the 
nether limbs, however, their symmetry some- 
what fails them. I should like much to see 
an English wrestler of equal weight pitted 
against one of these Indian athletes. The 



Ch. v.] 



GYMNASTICS. 285 



Stamina of the former would doubtless tell in 
tlxe end ; unless, at the first onset, the com- 
jparatively stift* Briton should get some inca- 
pacitating wrench or strain from the superior 
suppleness of the Indian's body and limbs. 

At the conclusion of the combats a man 
stepped forth to show us the practice of the 
double-edged sword, which in his hands ap- 
peared a terrible weapon, though in those 
unaccustomed to its use it is but an awkward 
instrument. The blade was full five feet long, 
and encumbered with a cluuisy iron hilt 
reaching half way up the arm, like a gaunt- 
let — thus — 




After a display of sundry sweeping and 
rotatory cuts that would have severed a bul- 
lock's neck, four small limes were placed 
on the ground, equidistant round the circle ; 
and the fellow, describing a variety of twirl- 
ing evolutions, not unlike an exaggerated 



288 JOURNEY TO CALCUTTA. [Ch-V^ 

^tsti approached them alternately, and, with^ 
out pausing in his giddy career^ divided each 
of them in two with a well-aimed horizontal 
cut. 

Shortly after the conclusion of the games^ 
tny two companions and myself resumed our 
d&k journey ; and so damaged were the roads 
by the late rains, that we did not reach Baree<» 
pore— of comfortless memory— until twelve 
o'clock the next day. I was oftentimes dur- 
ing the night awakened by the shouted chO«» 
rus of * Hurribole ! hurribole ! ' with which 
our bearers were saluted, as they passed^ by 
the groups of pilgrims who were snugly squat- 
ting on the road-side with their mat umbrellas 
spread over their heads to protect them from 
the heavy night-dew. 

Early in the morning I met a more distin- 
guished votary, who had accomplished thus 
much of his painful journey to Juggemauth, 
having measured his length all the way from 
the northern provinces: he had been a fort* 
night coming from Balasore, a distance of 
about fifty^five miles. This human reptile 



C1I.V.] BLACK-PENITENTS, 287 

was a young man of very slight form ; never^ 
theless^ he did not appear to be much worn 
or harassed by his quadrupedal journey of 
nearly a thousand miles. His forehead and 
breast were soiled with the mud of his unceas- 
ing prostrations, at each of which, ere he rose 
to his feet, he made a mark beyond his head 
on the ground, in order to be exact in his 
mensuration. 

These cruel penances are sometimes under-^ 
taken in propitiation of some heinous sin or 
sins, and at others in ratification of vows made 
to the gods to avert grievous afflictions. In 
the hour of sickness, for instance, the pious 
husband prays for the preservation of— or 
perchance his liberation from — his expiring 
wife ; and he backs his prayer with a vow, 
which is always conscientiously executed. 

During the night of the 2nd July, we crossed 
the Subanreeka river, a fine broad winding 
stream forming the frontier between the two 
great provinces of Orissa and Bengal. Its 
banks are ornamented with some banyan* 



288 THE RATH-JATTRA. [gh.V. 

trees of remarkable growth ; but the finest 
specimen of these wonderful, productions of 
vegetative nature that I have seen in this 
quarter of India flourishes near the ghaut of 
the Brahminee river, whiqh we passed two 
days ago. As my palankeen ran under the 
iarched corridors of this vegetable palace, its 
hundred stems, faintly lighted up by th<e pass- 
ing glare of the torches, might have easily 
been mistaken for the gray and time-worn 
columns of some ruined cloister. 

In our passage through the hamlet of 
Dantoon on the evening of the 3rd, our 
progress was obstructed by a dense crowd 
employed in celebrating their village edition 
of the festival of Rath-Jattra. The car was 
fixed obstinately in the mud of the main 
street, and the mob were striving with great 
uproar and little real exertion to remove it. 
On our approaching the spot, the hubbub 
immediately subsided, the women covered 
their faces, the populace opened out, and 
most of them saluted us respectfully as we 



Ch.V.J JOURNEY TO CALCUTTA. 289 

pa88ed— and thus it is throughout India in 
general : the EngliAhman meets with more 
respect and deference from the natives of the 
wildest parts of Hindostan, than he would 
from the lower orders of the most civilized 
portion of his own country. Nor is it merely 
the lip-homage of the conquered to the con- 
qucjror, of the weak to the strong : the Com- 
pany's government has (by contrast with 
former possejssors of the country) formed to 
itself a character for moderation, good-faith, 
wisdom, and benevolences which has secured 
to it the confidence of its subjects ; a feeling 
ext(jnd(Ml iu grciater or hjsser degrees — though 
in some iustanc(^s, Ilcavcju knows it is but ill- 
deserved — to every member of the English 
community. 

More than once, during my sporting ram- 
bles, 1 have IxHjn wayhiid by old men or 
women, who hav(^ brought sick chihlren to 
me, and Ix^ggcd mcj in their simple manner 
to prescribe for thorn. Although I never 
ventuHid to incur the risk of infanticide, I 
have often administered to adult patients; 

Vol. II. U 



200 GA^PEV REACQ. |;Gh.V. 

whose OWE faith in the infallibility of a white 
fi^e is probably more effic^ious thaa the 
medicine itself, On one ocp^ion, whilst an 
equally experienced friend and myself were 
in the act of pouring a dose of brandy down 
the throat of a youth ^^i^ted with the cholera, 
he sunk dowji ^t our feet an4 expired *. 

Jufy 9th. The two d&k divisions were cour 
?ened at Tiwalook. On the lOfA, Mr. Jm\^' 
say's beautiful beaiilii^ took us to the mouth 
of the Roopnarain fiver, wl^ere a steamer 
lawaited us, which was to waft us with great 
e^^pedition to Calcutta by the usual dinner 
hour. After three several fractures of the 
machinery, however, we thought ourselves 
fortunate in making Garden Reach by 9 p.m. 

* Lest the English reader should be impressed with too exalted 
an idisa of my heroism, in thus exposing myself to contact with a 
cholera-struck patient, I feel obUged to state that in India — where 
that cruel distemper has been at such pains to make itself known 
— I never heard even so much as the possibility of its contagion 
canvassed. In Europe, however, I found a contrary creed esta- 
bhshed, and the whole collective faculty ready to jump down the 
throat of the rash sceptic venturing to broach his old-fashioned, 
exploded, yet comfortable Indian notions ! 



Ch. v.] 



CALCUTTA. 291 



Here we were obliged to cast anchor; and 
Sir C. Metcalfe brought us off in a boat to 
his house, where we were all provided with 
beds. 

The next morning, July llfA, 1829, Head- 
quarters were once more established at Cal- 
cutta, after a rambling, and most interesting 
tour of twenty months. 

During the remaining five months of my 
residence in India, I was pretty generally 
stationary at the Residency, and as the march 
of my pen seldom outruns that of my person, 
I find my journal, during this period, blank, 
except on two occasions ; first, where it follows 
me on an eight days* sporting expedition ; 
and secondly, where it attempts to give a 
slight sketch of * A day in Calcutta,' or 
more properly, Chouringhee — the sonorous 
name by which the English quarter of the 
great city is known. The first I shall omit 
— for it is long. The lust I shall subjoin— 
for it is short. 



U2 



292 



A DAY IN CALCUTTA, 

In the hot weather — and nine months of 
the twelve art hot — the Anglo-Bengalee — 
unless he has been late at a party the night 
before, or loves his bed better than his health 
— is roused by the punctual warning of his 
bearer, * Sahib ! Sahib ! it has struck four/ 
and completing, by the assistance of the 
same domestic officer, a hasty toilette, he 
mounts his Arab, and by half-past four is 
taking his constitutional canter round the 
dew-freshened race-course. There — ^unless, 
as is sometimes the case^ he be too languid 
to be social — he joins company with some 
of the many acquaintances he is sure to 
fall in with ; and discusses the merits of 
the last batch of claret, * per petite Louise^ 
from Bourdeaux, or the last batch of misses, 
' per Duchess of Bedford,' from England ; 
the last act of Government, or the last dinner 
at Gunter's. Or, if there be any that he has 
chanced to fall out with, he may on the same 



€h.V.] A DAY IN CALCUTTA. 293 

spot, under the well-known ' Great Tree,' dis- 
cuss his point of honour without danger of 
interruption. During the months preceding 
the races, the training of the horses affords 
the sporting world of Calcutta an additional 
incitement to the healthful practice of early 
rising. 

At six, or soon after, that arch-enemy of 
European constitutions the sun begins to 
dart, from above the tall mansions of Chourin- 
ghee, its intolerable rays across the hitherto 
thronged plain ; and the ' Qui hi ' who has 
any respect for the well-being of his liver, 
shrinks appalled from its increasing disk, 
sneaks home, delivers his reeking horse to 
the attendant syce, and, exhausted with the 
monstrous exertion he has undergone, creeps 
under his musquito curtain, and dozes, a 
bearer fanning him, until half-past eight. 

A bath — the greatest luxury in India — and 
perhaps shampooing wind him up for the 
breakfast of tea, muffins, and pillau at half 
past nine ; after which those who are fortu- 
nate enough to have offices, repair thither in 



394 A DAT IK CALCUTTA. [CS1.YI 

buggy or palankeen ; and, with trhite jacket 
tm back and punkah over head, eam^ tant 
bieli que mal, their rupees and their tiffen. 
This subsidiary meal is a favourite mid-day 
pastime of both the ladies and men of the 
Presidency, and is the only repast at which 
appetite generally presides. A rich hash^ or 
hot curry^ followed by a well-cooled bottle of 
claret, or Hodson's pale ale, tnth a variety of 
eastern fruits, are thus despatched at 2 o'clock, 
forming in fact a dinner, whilst the so-called 
meal at 8 o'clock would be better named 
supper. 

Idle men employ the above hours in visiting, 
billiards, or the auction-rooms. In the for- 
mer ceremonial, should the visitor, going his 
rounds, find the gates of the * compound*' 
closed, he is to deduce that the Bebee Sahib f 
is not visible. Should they be thrown open^ 
Ott the contrary^ he draws a favourable au- 
gury-^whiclij however, may still be negatived 
by the Cerberus DurwAn J) — dashes through 
the portal, draws tip sharp under the co- 

♦ Enclosure round the house. f The Lady. % Porter. 



Ch.V.] A DAY IK CALCUTTA* 29S 

lumned ehtrance, jumps out, and is receivfed 
at the door — (there is not a knocker in all 
India !)— by a respectful but pompous and 
most deliberate jemadar, who, striding before 
the Bhar-kee-Sahib * — the ivory tassels of 
his dagger rattling as he walks — leads him 
through a darkened ante-room, (where ano- 
ther attendant, within hearing of the delicate 
* Qui hi ! ' of the lady, rises wakefully and 
salaams, or sits sleepily and nods,) and 
finally introduces him by his name (strangely 
distorted, however) into the yet more ob- 
scured sanctum. Here, seated in luxurious 
fauteuil, and fanned by the wavings of the 
heavy-flounced punkah, the eyes of the 
visiter (albeit as yet unused to the tender 
twilight of the hermetically-closed apartment) 
discover the fair object of his visit. He is 
seated ; obvious topics are dispatched, and 
happy is it for absent acquaintances if the 
late arrival of a ship, or a new novel is at 
hand to furnish external matter for discussion. 
In default of this diversion, living victims are 

♦ strange gentleman. 



296 A DAY IN CALCUTTA, [CluV. 

offered up at the shrine of tittle-tattle — 
I wont call it scandal — ^attentions' and 
^ intentions ' are anatomized ; flirtations ana- 
lyzed ; couples, as adverse as fire and water, 
are wedded and bedded; and friends, as at- 
tached as twin-brothers, are paraded with 
* pistols for two' under the * Great Tree/ The 
lady's ivory stiletto, urged by her white fin^ 
gers rendered still whiter by Indian seclu- 
sion, is not more actively eiiiployed in tor- 
turing her tamboured muslin, than is her 
tongue in torturing and distorting facts — I 
wont say characters — the gentleman attacks 
the men, the lady the women ; each defends 
the opposite sex, and they separate mutually 
satisfied with themselves, — not overhearing 
the exclamation from the neighbouring veran- 
dah, ^ There is Captain A. only just going 
away from Mrs. B. ; what can he have be^i 
doing there these three hours, whilst Mr. B. 
is at office ? ' — ^but this smacks of persiflage! 
To our subject, — ^The tiffen being concluded, 
many have recourse to a siesta, to recruit 
their forces and to kill time. 



Ch.V.l A DAY IN CALCUTTA, 297 

Towards six, the orb of day, tending to- 
wards tlxe western horizon, begins to relax 
the vigour of his rays ; the lengthening ' sha- 
dows give evidence of his decline ; and ere he 
has quite deserted the glowing heavens, the 
echoes of Calcutta are awakened by the rat- 
tling — rattling indeed ! — of hundreds of equi- 
pages, from the lordly coach-and-four to the 
less-aspiring but dapper buggy; from the 
costly Arab charger to the ambling Pegu 
pony. All hurry to the same point, urged by 
the desire of seeing and being seen ; and in- 
deed those morose few, who are not instigated 
by these all-potent motives, are obliged to 
resort to the same mall, as the only well- 
watered drive. At dusk the Course and 
Strand are deserted : — except by a few choice 
spirits, who love to breathe the cool air of 
moonlight and to listen to the soft whisperings 

of the evening breeze, rather than the 

coarse steam of viands and the bubbling of 
houkahs — the world of Calcutta is dressing for 
dinner ; and by 8 o'clock it is seated at that 
important, but often untasted meal. In the 



^8 A DAT tV CALfcUTtA* [CIlV. 

hoBpitJEible mansions of the * uj>pet Bertants ' 
of the Company the tables groati under the 
weight of massive plate, atid, what is worse^ 
under whole hetacombs of beef and mutton^ 
I have frequently seen — horesco referens! — 
in a side-dish, which would have been much 
more appropriately tenanted by ail appetising 
fricandeau or a tempting ris de veau, — two 
legs of mutton, or twin turkeys ; yet with all 
this profusion, scarcely any one has suffi- 
ciently recovered from the heavy tiffen dis- 
patched at two, to be able even to look with- 
out shuddering upon the slaughtered herds— ^ 
much less to taste two mouthfdls. 

Champaign and claret, delightfully cooled 
Ivith ice or saltpetre, are real luxuries ; and, 
ere thfe lafet course is well off the table, art 
isolated bubble announces the first houkab ; 
others drop in, the jingling df Suppooses is 
heard ; a rich, though rather overcoming 
odour pervades the air; handsome mouth- 
pieces df amber, gold, silter, or Videri, decked 
With snowy ruffles, insinuate themselves from 
undei* the arffis of the chairs ; and the pauses 



Oh. v.] ARRIVAL OF THE PALLAS. 209 

in the sometimes languid and ill-sustained 
conversation are deprived of their former 
aWkwardnc;ss by the full sonorous drone of a 
dozen of these princely pipes. 

The men do not sit so long after the ad* 
journment of the ladies as is the custom in 
England. 

Inveterate smokers have their houkahs 
transferred to the drawing-room. They are 
not bad companions in the silence of a whist 
table ; but prove rather a barbarous accompa- 
niment to the music and singing, in the 
piano passages of which its monotonous growl 
chimes rather discordantly. The houkah, 
however, in a room full of ladies docs not 
appear to a griffin (* young hand/ or Johnny 
Newcome) more out of place, than dofes 
the half-naked figure of the punkah-puller. 
Small particjB break up about half-past t(;n, 
with a view to the ensuing morning's ride — 
and lo ! a Calcutta day is completed. 

Dec, Sth, This evening, during the accus- 
tomed promenade, a flying report of the 



300 ARRIVAL OF THE PALLAS. lOuV. 

arrival of the frigate reached the mall. My 
heart leaped at the glad tidings, and I vented 
my joy by spurring my astonished Arab at 
full speed round the lonely race-course. A 
reaction followed, and as I walked my 
smoking horse slowly home, I sighed at the 
thought of quitting a country where I had 
passed four happy and eventful years. Ere 
nightfall the rumour was confirmed — H.M.S. 
Pallas, forty-two. Captain Adolphus Fitzr 
Clarence, had anchored in the Hooghly, having 
on board Lord Dalhousie and Stafi*, and the 
Right Rev. John Turner, newly appointed 
Bishop of Calcutta. I received by this con- 
veyance several letters kindly brought from 
England by Lieutenant Knox, and all of theni 
beckoning me home again. 




(n>;hM^BM, »w.iij 



301 



CHAPTER VI. 

VOYAGE FROM CALCUTTA TO ENGLAND, VIA MADRAS, 
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, ST. HELENA, AND ASCENSION. 

Jan. 0th, 1830. Yesterday, Lord Comber- 
mere repaired on board the Pallas ; and this 
morning was fixed for the embarkation of 
the remainder of the home-bound party. A 
brother Ex-A.'D.C. and myself breakfasted 
at Government House ; and at ten o'clock, 
we accompanied the Governor- General and 
Lady William Bentinck — who intended to 
honour the frigate with a visit — on board the 
Hooghly steam-boat, destined to convey us 
to Diamond Harbour, about fifty miles from 
Calcutta. 

By half-past ten, the City of Palaces was 
shut out from our view, and we were dashing 
past the verdant shores of Garden Reach, 
with its long line of Thames-like villas — under 
whose roofs I had so often (quaffed the cup 
of hospitality, or * chased the glowing hours 



302 DIAMOND HARBOUR. [Ch. VI. 

with flying feet/ On rushed the quivering 
Hooghly, ploughing fiercely through the 
glossy bosom of h^r river godmother and 
namesake; and soon after four o'clock she 
brought us alongside the Pallas, who received 
the Governor with manned yards, and a thun- 
dering salute, — an eiiiample followed by all 
the ships in the harboQr. 

At six o'clock the whole party, about thirty 
in number, dined pn l^oa^rd. The table was 
spread ou the quarter-d^ck. and canopied 
over with flags ; and the f(3^st afforded us a 
very satisfactory earnest of the good cheer 
that we were to expect during our long 
voyage — expectations that were more than 
realized by the result. In the evening the 
Hooghly again received its noble passengers, 
and the greater number of our leave-taking 
friends; the Ganges steamer remaining to 
tow us out pf the river. 

Jan. 7th. Pallas weighed and made sail 
from Diamond harbour, towed by the Ganges. 
Slowly and gradually we floated past the low 



CII.VI.] THE SANP-HBADS. 303 

and marshy shore of Kedgeree, thp ^ild and 
desert Sauger, and the sandy £)dmonstone's 
Isle ; and at sunset wp anchored still in sight 
of land. Among others of our friends who re- 
mained on board, with t\\^ intention of returning 
when the steamer left us, was Colonel Skinner, 
who had brought with him three of his Russul- 
dars (native ol^cers of rank). These men, who 
Had never before quitted dry land, were rap- 
turous in their admiration of the size, clean- 
lines&i and discipline of the ship ; nor were 
they themselves less the objects of wonder 
to the crew, who eyed them with that sort 
of knowing smile in which there is more of 
Gtatire than mere curiosity — and many a wink 
was exchanged, when as the sun sunk below 
the horizon, the tall, showily-attired Mussul- 
mans prostrated themselves on the quarter- 
deck, and pressed their foreheads against the 
boards. At dusk, Pallas anchored in five 
fathoms of water. 

Jan. nth. This morning I saw for the last 
time the sun rise over the low green shores 



304 PALLAS AT 8BA. [CSkVI. 

of Bengal ; in two hours, the tallest palmyras 
had dipped out of sight ; and when our noble 
frigate had fairly become the nucleus of a wide 
unbroken circle of sea and sky, the fact was 
pointed out to the three native officers, who 
after deliberately scanning the whole horizon, 
vented their admiration in a torrent of en- 
thusiastic ejaculations. The Ganges towed 
us well out of a calm ; and at 6 p.m. she cast 
us off, and taking the still lingering remnant 
of our friends on board, turned her head to- 
wards the land. 

At eight o'clock, we put our pilot on board 
the * floating light,' which is moored at the 
extreme point of the Sand-heads ; a *fine 
leading breeze assisted us all night, and in 
the morning the Pallas was in blue water, 
and bending her rapid course towards Ma- 
dras. The England-bound party consisted 
of Lord Combermere and five of his Staff; 
each passenger was provided with a com- 
fortable cabin ; and during the four months 
we were on board, our liberal and courteous 
Captain left us nothing to complain of — 



Ch.VlJ THE FRIGATE. 305 

" ■ 

except, perhaps, occasional indigestions, the 
fruits of a table but too profuse for the well- 
being of dyspeptic Indians. 

To a passmgtr^ a frigate possesses advan- 
tages and drawbacks in pretty equal propor- 
tions — though, in the eyes of military men, 
the latter generally preponderate : — but as a 
command^ it appears to me the most complete 
and independent that falls to the lot of men 
of middling rank. 

* Who would not brave the death fire, and the wreck, 
To move tlie monarch gi' her i)eopled deck ? ' 

The captain of a frigate is the sovereign 
of a little floating island : he is the tyrant 
or the father of his subjects, according as 
his disposition prompts ; and with very little 
management and tact he may make himself 
the master of the affections, as well as the 
services of his officers and crew. To a sub- 
ordinate, however, the army must necessarily 
be the most engaging profession. 

Jan. \4th. At eight o'clock this morning, 
after a pleasant sail of five days, the Pallas 

Vol. II. X 



30G MADRAS. [Ch. VI. 

anchored in the Madras roads, ahout two miles 
from the shore, and in eight fathoms water. 
The view of this Presidency from the sea is 
by no means favourable: the shore is flat, 
the buildings mean in compfeirison with Cial- 
cutta, and the trees scrubby and ill-gro1i»ni. 
On more intimate acquaintance with Madras, 
however, we were agreeably surprised by thfe 
picturesque and umbrageous situatioils of its 
garden houses, which are not seen from the 
sea; yet, on the whole, our parting and col- 
lective verdict pronounced it to be a full half 
century behind the sister Pl*esidency in the 
luxuries and conveniences of life. 

No sooner had the Pallas swung to her 
anchor, and the canvas, quickly furled, disap- 
peared as if by magic frbin her tapfer yards, 
than a mussoula boat was seen to push froni 
the shore; and on Coming alongside was 
fbuhd tb contain the almost senseless person 
of a highly embroidered Staff officer, who had 
come off to arrange about the landing of his 
Lordship ; but so dreadfully sea-sick was 
the unfortunate man, that ere he reached the 



Ch. VI.] GOVERNMENT HOUSE. 307 

Pallas, he was lying quite helpless in thd 
bottom of the boat. 

About an hour after, the Governor's mus- 
soula boat, decorated with the Honourable 
Company's flag and furnished with a stern- 
awning, took us on board. The sea Was run- 
hing very high; and nothing could be finer 
than the manner in which our buoyant craft 
bounded over the three surfs, the last of 
which left us far up, high and dry, on the 
sand. On landing opposite the Custoin 
House, our party was immediately accom- 
modated with a variety of equipages, which 
conveyed us to the Government House, where 
we were courteously welcomed by the Gover- 
nor, Mr. Lushington. 

The palace, which is about a mile and a 
half from the custom-house wharf, is large 
and commodious, but of anomalous and in- 
elegant architecture : it is well situated 
near the mouth of a small river, and has 
some fifty acres of parkish-looking ground 
around it. 

In the afternoon a resident friend drove me 

X2 



308 THE ESPLANADE. [Ch.VI. 

in his phaeton to the fashionable Mall. The 
Esplanade, the road along the beach, and the 
Mount-road were thronged with well-filled 
carriages; but ^wcA carriages ! they were even 
more antediluvian in their construction than 
the equipages of Calcutta, and contrasted 
strangely with the smart bonnets of the ladies 
who tenanted them. 

Dined with a very numerous party at Go- 
vernment-house. The servants of Madras 
are smart and attentive, and have more of the 
mercurial flippancy of the English waiter, 
than the slow deliberate khitmutgar of Cal- 
cutta. They are not so tenacious of caste, 
and consequently fewer of them are required ; 
for the same domestic who waits at dinner, 
will also condescend to superintend his mas- 
ter's toilet. 

I did not see a single houkah at Madras, 
and I was informed that this fashionable sti- 
mulant, to an old Bengalee almost as neces- 
sary as his food, is seldom used here. 

Jan. I5th. Madras. I was introduced this 



Ch.VI.] FORT GEORGE. 309 

morning to the famous horse-fancier — Colonel 
Macdonell, I think — who goes by the familiar 
sobriquet of Arab Mac. : he is said at this mo- 
ment to have a stud of about sixty high-caste 
Arabs in his stables; two of them, Aurelio 
and Esterhazy, being considered by the 
knowing-ones to be the best in India. 

Went to see * the lions ' of Fort George 
and Black Town. The former, which has 
been the scene of more than one stubborn 
fight between the English and French, is 
laid down agreeable to the rules of modern 
fortification; its situation is good, but it is 
much crowded with high buildings in the 
interior. His Majesty's 20th Regiment is 
now quartered within the walls. The native 
town has nothing remarkable in it: it is, 
however, built more regularly, and of more 
durable materials than is the similar quarter 
of Calcutta. 

The natives of Madras fall short of the 
Bengalcse in delicacy of feature and sym- 
metry of person, although they are perhaps 
better formed for exertion. The men are 



310 THE NATIVES. [Ch. VL 

i^qiallerT-T-as was ipanifest oii comparing the 
average standards of the regiments of each 
Presidency ; the women, on the cqntr^y, 
are, I think, taller, and many of them very 
handsome. Their costume is becoming, and 
the poorest have some gpld ornament on their 
persons. The prettiest of their decorations is 
a small skull-cap of solid filagree gold, which 
is worn on the crqwn of the head, and fast- 
ened through the hair like a brpoch. Ano- 
ther article of fashion, which has since found 
its way to England, is a belt of solid gold or 
silver fastened round the waist. The Trichi- 
nopoli chains are in high vogue both with 
Europeans and natives ; and there is always 
a profusion of very inferior ones ready to 
tempt the casual passenger. 

The next morning we had a pleasant drive 
to Palaveram, a military cantonment twelve 
miles from Madras, where Lord Combermere 
reviewed four regiments of native infantry. 
The men are certainly inferior in personal 
appearance to the Bengal seapoy, but they 



C^.yi.] RE-EMBARKATION. 311 

arc well dressed, aud are, iudividually, smarter 
and mofe active soldiers than the latter. Q^ 
our return from the Mount, we visited St. 
George's church, built by Captain Colviu of 
the Engineers. It is a beautiful edifice, and 
the cliunam of the columns in the interior is so 
fine as to have all the polish of white marble. 
At one entrance there is a very fine monument, 
by Chan trey, of Dr. Anderson, a gentleman 
to whom Madras is indebted for many imr 
prov(3ments. It wivs exhibited in Somerset 
House before it was sent out to its destination. 
At 1 I'.M. our party took leave of the Go- 
vernor, and drove down to the busy wharf, 
where a nmssoula boat attended us. An 
hour's knocking-about brought us alongside 
the Pallas ; in another hour we were under 
all sail, going nine knots ; and by the follow- 
mg mid-day we had left Madras one hundred 
and eighty three miles behind us. 

After three or four prosperous days, the 
wind gradually deserted us, and on the 21. st 
morning we were nearly becalmed. Croakers 



312 PALLAS. [CkVL 

—of whom there are always a strong party on 
board ship— immediately began to anticipate 
the usual fortnight's calm weather near the 
equator ; when fortunately a sudden squall 
came on, and completely changed the face 
of affairs. The gallant ship, which for the last 
forty-eight hours had been almost paralyzed, 
•as suddenly resumied her functions, and sprung 
through the hissing billows at the rate of 
nine and ten knots all night, during which 
time we crossed the dreaded Line. The next 
two days this auspicious breeze continued, only 
abating at intervals. Towards th§ close of 
the month, the westerly airs grew gradually 
fainter, and we had very nearly relapsed into 
a calm, when, on the 4th of February, in la- 
titude 1 7°, a light breeze from the south-east 
sprung up, and the barometer of our hopes 
rose in proportion. 

For the last week * all hands ' had been 
impatiently looking out for the south-east 
Trade wind, which is usually fallen in with by 
homeward-bound ships, in latitude 11° or 12^ 
and board-o'-ship superstition had attributed 



Ch.VI.] A FUNERAL AT SEA. 313 

our ill-luck to some Jonah passenger. To 
corroborate this theory, the bearer of the 
first intelligence of the Trade having set in, 
brought likewise, at the same time, to the 
cabin the report of the death of Sergeant 
Sawkins (Lord Combermere's orderly for 
many years), who had embarked in wretched 
health, the effect of drinking, and had been 
gradually wasting away. It struck me that 
these two events were connected in the mhids 
of the seamen ! 

The next day the little Pallas, under the 
full influence of the south-east Trade, was 
gliding along at the rate of nine knots an 
hour, and so smoothly, that she scarcely 
appeared to be in motion. 

Early in the morning the body of poor 
Sawkins, shrouded with a flag and weighted 
with shot, was, in the words of tlie beautiful 
funeral service, ' committed to the deep.' 
The deceased is the fourth victim dragged by 
the grim king of terrors from among Lord 
Combermere's suite since he landed in India. 



814 PALLA3. [Gl^VI. 

Tbe other three were his aides-'de-c^fup, Cq- 
lonel Kelly, Captain Stapletoii, and Cs^ptaia 
Dougan. Had it been pre-rpvealed to us 
that so large a portion of our small party 
were to be stricken, how fi^wful w<)uld b^i-ve 
been the warning ! 

Feb. nth, lat.28° 10', long. 45° 31'. This 
day at twelve o'clock, we were one hundred 
and fifty-six miles direct south of Cape St. 
Mary in the Isle of Madagascar, and one thou- 
sand and thirty-five miles from Algoa Bay, 
on the coast of Africa. The trade wind has 
hitherto treated us as though its charter were 
confined to the propulsion of commercial 
ships, and H. M. S. Pallas consequently not 
entitled to its assistance. This day, however, 
it vouchsafed to arrive in real earnest to our 
aid, and continued with us for a week, ad- 
vancing us at the rate of two hundred miles a 
day. 

23rd. At 5 p.m. the cry of ' land ahead,' 
from the look-out aloft, brought us ftU upon 



Gl^yi.] OFF CAPE OF QOOD HOPE. 315 

deck} in the hope of seeing that which was 
not made visible to us i|i our less exalted 
situation until an hour later, when we werp 
within thirty miles of the shore. The horizon 
was hazy, but wp nevertheless plainly distin- 
guished the line pf lofty and bold monntains 
backing up the Bay of Algoa — the point 
which is usually iQade by ships returning 
from India. At IQ p.M. the ship was only 
eight or nine miles from the land ; and large 
tires, probably the burning of the forests on 
the hills, were distinctly visible tp thpse on 
board. 

Thp following day we added two hundred 
miles to our score, and at eight o'clock v.^. 
sounded in fifty-five fathoms, distance froin 
shore thirty-four niiles. 

Feb. 2l)th. The south-east trade, having 
fairly carried us into soundings, made its bow, 
leaving behind it a dead cahn, and so heavy 
a swell, that the poor Pallas elbowed the 
wavps at every roll with her studding-sail- 



310 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. [Ch. VL 

boom?, and nearly thrashed threadbare a 
M'holc suit of canvas. The middies were very 
busy with their fishing-lines, and were pretty 
successful. A very good cod of about fifteen 
pounds was caught by dropping the deep- 
sea-lead to the bottom, furnished with hooks 
baited witli meat. It found its way to the 
Captain's table, the fisherman being too glad 
to barter his fish for a fine sheep. 

• 26th. At twelve o'clock. Cape Lagullas 
E. N. E., five miles; and Cape Hanglip, N.W. 
i W., sixty-three miles — the calm and swell 
still mocking our endeavours to approach 
those bold and beautiful mountains, under 
whose shadow a steam-vessel would place us 
in a few hours. An occasional * cat's-paw' and 
the set of the current prevented us, however, 
from being utterly motionless; and Pallas gra- 
dually crept towards her destination. During 
the day, a large whale sevieral times ap- 
proached the ship, disporting its huge bulk 
in heavy gambols round us. The weather was 
delightfully cool, although there was not a 



ch. VI.] falsi: day. 317 

single cloud to moderate the rays of the 
sun. 

How diametrically different were the cir- 
cumstances under which I passed the Cape 
of Good Hope in August, 1825 ! My journal, 
on that occasion, expatiates, with all the elo- 
(pience of a lirst voyage, upon a terrific north- 
wester ; and, as I glance down its sea-washed 
pages, my eye is arrested by the following 
catch-words : * violent hail storm ;' ' waves 
half-mast high ;' ' mainsail split into ribbons;' 
* (quarter boat washed oft* the davits ;' ' man 
overboard;' ' line lunar rainbow,' &c. 

Feb. 2iUlL Hounded Cape Hanglip at 5 a.m., 
and entered False Bay with a tine strong 
breeze from the south-east. The two points 
of Hanglip and Good Hope form the horns — 
if th(»y maybe so styled — of the bay; and 
appear to be distant asunder about ten 
miles. They are as bold, bluff, and bleak, as 
the extreme; salient angle of the continent of 
Africa, exposed and opposed to the unceas- 
ing attacks of the great Southern Ocean, has 



318 Simon's bat. [Ch.vi. 

need to be. On entering the bay, we skirted 
swiftly along the western shore, within half 
a mile of its precipitous and rocky cliffs ; and 
at 8 A.M. Pallas dropped anchor off Silnon's 
Town, in the little bay or inlet of the same 
name. The anchorage is completely land- 
locked; and during the south-east trade, 
which blows Math little variation during the 
whole summer, it is more easily approached 
than Table Bay — on the t^^efetem side of the 
Cape. The only ship that we found in the 
hlarbour was the Mdidstotife frigate, Comino- 
dore Schomberg, who Comtnands on this 
station. 

The greatest drawback to Simon's Bay is 
its distance, twenty-three iniles, from Cape 
Town. Simon's Town has nothing to recom- 
mend it in its appearance ; though, from its 
being generally seen after the tedium of a 
long voyage, it is, perhaps, regarded by visiters 
with more complacency than it intrinsically 
merits. It is situated at the foot of a steep 
crescent of rock and gravel hills, sparely 
sprinkled with stunted brushwood. The 



Ch. VI.] 



Simon's tdwN. 319 



mcthodist chapel occupies the most command- 
ing station in the town ; next to which will be 
remarked the Custom-house, the Commodore's 
residence partially shaded by some dwarfish 
trdes, the hospital, and the Clergyman's rus- 
iil-urbe retreat. The warehouses on the wharf 
contaih stores for his Majesty's ships to the 
iamount df fifty thousand pounds. There is 
very good fishing in Simoh's Bay, particularly 
in the vicinity of the Roman Rocks — a cluster 
df surf-washed Crags two miles from shore — 
atid in an inlet called Fishhook's Bay, three 
miles beyond Simon's Town. 

We had not been five minutes at anchor, 
ere the ship whs surrouiided by a swarm of 
small boats, chiefly filled with Hottentots, 
who supplied us largely with grapes, figs, 
and c^ggs; the former were unripe; the latter, 
on the contrary, wcire * rather too mellow f()r 
me.' Washermen, too, in abundance, offered 
their servicers, and the number of * buck-bas- 
kets ' lowered into their boats bespoke a thriv- 
ing business. The exorbitant charges of these 
ministers to board-o'-sliip comfort astonished 



320 LAND IN AFRICA. [Gb.VL 

those of our party who in India had been 
accustomed to exhaust a whole wardrobe of 
linen in a day, at the trifling monthly cost of 
seven or eight rupees. 

At noon, the Captain, with some of his 
officers and his passengers, went on shorfe; 
where we were hospitably greeted by liie 
worthy Commodore, who entertained us with a 
capital dinner (which, from its variety of Cape 
rarities, was as good as a museum to us 
strangers), and with his merrily-expended 
fund of high spirits and dry humour. What 
havoc did we commit upon his vast mounds 
of delicious fruit ! No one, who has not been 
six weeks at sea, can imagine the rapture of 
a first meeting with a fine, fresh, luscious 
bunch of grapes. My young friends in the 
midshipmen's berth can well appreciate the 
luxury ; for it did my heart good to see one 
of these merry middies— whose biU of fare for 
so long a period had been * junk,' and nothing 
else but junk — sitting, like a little Bacchus, 
across a cask, and stripping a bunch of 
* honey-pods ' nearly co-bulky with himself. 



ch.vi.] Simon's TOWN. 321 

The largest house in Simon's Town, and, 
indeed, the greater part of the town itself, 
belongs to an Englishman of the name of 
Osbond, who, however, is more generally 
known by the dignified title of * King John/ 
He was carpenter on board the sixty-gun ship 
Sceptre, which was wrecked off this coast 
some years ago. Like Juan, he escaped the 
sea, and like Juan he found a Haidee. Being 
well-favoured and sharp-witted, he won the 
heart and the hand of a wealthy Dutch widow, 
whose dollars he afterwards, in some bold 
but successful speculations, turned to good 
account. He is said to have laid out ten 
thousand pounds on these — to every one but 
himself — inhospita littora. King John is much 
.respected. 

March Ist. Captain Fitz-Clarencc having 
signified his intention of remaining a week at 
the Cape, Lord Combermere, with one of his 
party, started this morning for the country 
cottage of the Governor, Sir Lowry Cole ; 
whilst the remaining four projected a trip to 

Vol, II. Y 



322 DRIVE TO CAPE TOWN. [CJiLVI. 

Cape Town. In pnranance of our jdan, we 
hired a barouche and six, and a light waggon 
for our baggage, and by noon we were fairly 
off. The carriage was of English build, and 
the six horses were driyen in hand by the 
allied powers of an English coacbmaii and m 
Hottentot assistant ; the former managing the 
rein department, whilst the province of the 
latter consisted in wielding a terrific scourge 
of bamboo and thong, which reached with 
ease the leading horses. Our coachee's lash/ 
however, sunk into insignificance^ when we 
saw the whips used in Cape Town to drive 
teams of eighteen or twenty oxen« We soon 
found that our carriage, lightly freighted as it 
was, could not have gone a mile with less 
than six horses ; and even with them we were 
compelled to alight several times, at points 
where the road, crossing the heads of little 
bays, was axle deep in sand. At one pass the 
horses struggled so violently, that the leaders 
lost their balance, and both rolled over the 
side of the road. We kicked open the door, 
and were out of the vehicle in a moment, and 



Ch. VI.] FISH-HOOK'8 BAY. 323 

the frightened animals fortunately lay per- 
fectly quiet until we had divested them of 
their harness. Had they continued their 
struggles, they must have drawn the whole 
equipage over the rocky precipice into the 
bdiling surf below. We soon repaired da- 
Bdages^ and proceeded, meeting with no fur- 
ther mishaps. 

On the sides of the road I remarked the 
Btiost luxuriant geraniums growing up in com- 
pany with the rankest weeds. The hills in 
the neighbourhood abound in a great and 
curious variety of bulb plants, of which pretty 
laige collections are yearly shipped off to 
England. At Fish-Hooks Bay, where there 
are the ruins of an unsuccessful whale fishery, 
the shore is strewed with the gaunt skeletons 
ef several of these giants of the deep t the 
gardens and enclosures round the cottages of 
die hamlet are fenced in with the smaller 
bones ; and the beams and uprights — I may 
not call them timbers — of the habitaticms 
themselves are for the most part formed bf 

Y 2 



324 HALF-WAY HOUSE. [ClvVI. 

the vast ribs, which afford 8^,mos|t durable 

material. ,...;;,, l, .M-i-nci,. 

After the first six miles, the road des^ts 

the sea-shore, and leads pver ,^fSaudy plaiq. 

which, with very few slight el^yajti^piiSpe^t^i^ife 

from the head of False Bay to that of Tarble 

Bay. The lowness and saudiu^ss qf this yalr 

ley, and the abruptness of U^iempxintiEtins of 

the Cape and Hottentot HoU?i.nd on either 

side of it, give probability to tjbie thoory which 

attempts to prove that the two harbours were 

once connected by the sea— thus I^aking the 

Cape an island. ! 

We stopped an hour to bait at the h^f- 

way-house, a well-situated hotel, kept by Mr. 

George, the host of the * first ' inn at Cape 

Town. From the road near this, are disn 

tinctly discernible the two fanious wine farms 

of Constantia, reclining in the sunny yet sheU 

tered lap of the great Table Mountain whicfc 

towers in dark and awful majesty behind them.. 

Its flat summit was entirely shrouded by the 

* Devil's table-cloth,' which, in spite of the 



Ch. VL] TABLE BAY. 325 

high wind, hung torpid and motionless in its 
appointed place. 

Not far froni the halfway-house is situated 
the pretty village of Wynberg; and, two miles 
beyond it, embowered in rich groves, is snugly 
seated Protea, the Governor's country resi- 
dence. As we approach Cape Town, the 
country gradually assumes a more smiling 
aspect; and as the traveller drives between 
luxuriant hedges of well-grown oaks and firs, 
and glances down the long umbrageous ave- 
nues leading to the villas of the more wealthy 
Dutch burghers, he almost forgets the arid 
sands and bleak rocks of Simon's Bay. 

Turning sharp round the east shoulder of 
Table Mountain, in the face of a wind which 
kept up a continual volley of gravel (for dust 
is no name for its coarse granulation), we 
came suddenly upon Table Bay and Cape 
Town. The anchorage was adorned with no 
less than sixteen large vessels : in the centre 
of the bay we plainly descried the low Robbin 
Island, which seems to act as a breakwater ; 
and in the right distance was pointed out to 



826 CAPK TOWH^ 



lek. n. 



OS the Blue Berg Hill, near wbieh olir troops, 
under Sir D. Baird, landed at tbe conquest of 
the Cape in 1806. 

The town is most picturesquriy,butJ»ost sti- 
flingly situated under the curving flanks of the 
Table Mountain and Lion's Hill : the ho^ises 
are of dazzling whiteness; and liie church 
spires, windmills, and turnpikes carried me 
in imagination to England. I paid the toXL 
this day with real pleasure, fbr it was the first 
that I had paid for five years \ After passing 
the castle (a wretched mud fort), the great 
foarrat^ks, and a well-shaded promenade, in 
which are situated the public reading-rooms 
and library, we entered the Heerren Ghraght 
(Gentleman's Walk), a fine wide street, with a 
deep water-course and a double row of tall 
and thick fir-trees in the centre. Turning 
up this boulevard of Cape Town, our ba- 
rouche and six rattled up to George's inn, 
which proved to be quite full ; and its thriving 
host gave us the unwelcome intelligence that 
the numerous boarding and lodging-houses — 
kept chiefly by Dutch families — ^were nearly 



Ch.VI.] LODOIMO-HUNTING. 337 

all occupied by the unusual influx of chance 
Tisitors. The Lady HoUsuid, merchantman^ 
had been wrecked a few days before near the 
bay, and the passengers^ who were all saved, 
were quartered on the town. 

We were, however, after some debate, 
directed to a pension kept by a Dutch gentle- 
man (whose name by six week3' application 
I might, p^haps, have learned to pronounce), 
in one of the three great streets parallel to 
the Heerren Graght. Two of our quartette 
remained below to covenant with Mynheer, 
whilst the third and myself were conducted 
by an ancient yv^a^ to inspect the apartments. 
In our progress she led us calmly through a 
chamber, in which there sat a very comely 
damsel, attired in a white robe de chambre, 
her long dark hair unknotted, and abandoned 
to the tender mercies and the scissors of an 
Atropos-like barbress. I had half a mind to 
beg a lock — ^but the weird coiffeuse looked 
daggers, and the maiden looked distressed. 
The apartments were dark as the damsel's 
chevelure : they were also dirty and dismal ; 



328< cAPi^ TOiirm [c&^Ji 

and '.Mynheer conditioning ; thait l -wei dhoiild 
dine >at hia family hour of ^ o^^ddck, itnd Jkeepi 
hie bourgeois hours, we failed m^ coming tdi 
terms, although I remarked^ and i pom ted- out 
to our charge d'affaires^ thestup^idouBiehalkH 
stones in our Dutchman'^ knuckles^ which 
spoke volumes in favour of ihis> cheer; and: 
although his pretty black-eyed- daugiKter pa^ 
raded her Syren charms on the>aiitique balus^^ 
traded steps in front of the doo^^ | ? ; 

After some further search, which we pron: 
longed rather more than was stmtly neces^; 
sary, we finally engaged apartments^ tolerably 
airy, with well-polished parquets, and ae 
clean as white dimity could make them, in 
the house of a widowed milliner — the Frau 
Ost by name — and we boarded at the : inaj ^ 
Our landlady and her assistant sempstresses 
fipoke English pretty fluently — one of them^ 
a slender, melancholy, Spanish-looking girl^ 
who seldom made her appearance in the 
shop, was exceedingly beautiful-^ a sort of 
creature that one makes out a story for at 
first sight,. 



Gh. VI.) THE WOMEN. 329 

Being fresh landed from a six weeks' voyage, 
di^ring wkichl bad seen nothing less delicate 
than, the bronzed cheek — Bacchi plenusl^of 
theta?' at Ht;he wheel, I somewhat distrusted 
thO'iacumen of my^ taste for beauty, and I 
made due allowance for the same ; be it as it 
may» we wisre all much struck by the uncom- 
mon comelixiess of the Dutch women in 
general. There was scarcely a window that 
had not its pretty face — ^but it is said that 
their beauty is not lasting ; premature old age 
and wrinkles soon destroying the charms of 
a face whose perfections are more those of 
complexion than of feature* 

In the afternoon we repaired to the pro- 
menades. The weather was heavenly ; and 
the Heerren Graght was thronged with gay 
crowds. Passing up its shady street, we 
entered the Company's garden, through the 
centre of which in continuation of the * gentle- 
men's walk,' runs a gravelled promenade a 
mile in length and delightfully shaded with 
oaks,' meeting overhead* Within the extent 
of the walls are the Government House, and 



a fine menagerie of lioM and tigeiifr i liot the 
largest lion perhaps ever 0esii' lli^ttgs >to 
Monsieur Villett, a vender of natural curiosi- 
ties. I went to see it at liis conintry^house 
at Greea Pout, a short distance ottft of town, 
where he has several curious animalsw 

The variety of nations, and tbe numefifias 
shades of complexion among die people m 
the streets of Cape Town, are very strikiafg 
to a stranger. First may be jremi^ked the sub- 
stantial Dutchman, with hkpiietty, smiling, 
round-fttced, and particulariy WelL-dpessed 
daughter: then the knot of ^ Q« hi's,' seirt 
to the Cape, per doctor's certificate, te hus- 
band their threadbare constitutions, and lavish 
their rupees: next the obsequious smirking 
money-making China-man, with his poking 
shoulders, and whip-like pig-tail: then die 
stout squat Hottentots — who resenble the 
Dutch in but one characteristic !— -and half 
castes of every intermediate tint between 
black and white. These are well relieved and 
contrasted by the tall wariike figures and 
splendid costume of His Majesty's 72d High- 



Cb. Vhl THB LION HILL. 931 

landers, wjio, with the 98th Regiment, form 
the garrison of Capp Town. 

March M. Having engaged from Mn 
Stone's iivery-frtables a very smart and ser- 
viceable hack, I rode this morning round the 
Lion's Hill, so called from its rpde resem- 
blance to the ccmchant form of the brute 
king. It is a spur, running out at right 
angles £rom the Table, and abutting upon the 
sea. A semaphoric post, on that part of the 
hill 9tylad the Lion's Rump, commands a 
very extensive prospect. The road is not 
accessible to carriages, but it affords a de- 
lightful ride for the inhabitants of the town. 
That portion of it which skirts round the 
bluff promontory of rock overhanging thp sea, 
reminded me a good deal of some points in 
the mail-road between Conway and Bangor^ 
in Carnarvonshire. The view from the lofty 
Kloof, or Pass, separating the Lion's Hiaad 
and Table Mountain, is beautiful in the (ex- 
treme, and the more so from the suddenness 
with which the traveller comes upon it. Be- 



332 CAPE HORSES. [Ch-VL 

low US, about two miles distant, lajr the'idim; 
with its white buildings, parallel streets, and 
verdant promenades spread out like a map ; 
beyond, the thronged harbour, and the stinny 
bay spangled with distant sails— one '6f wbich, 
by-the-bye, proved to be the Minerva, Com- 
pany*s ship, which sailed two days after the 
Pallas, from Calcutta, and had thus kept 
pace with her frigate namesake. The grace- 
fill crescent of the bay id closed by the low 
outline of the Blue Berg Hill, and the extreme 
distance of the picture is filled up by the 
lofty mountains of Hottentot Holland. 

The horses of the Cape of Good Hope are 
in general very good, all the better bred ones 
having English blood in them. I have seen 
a Cape horse, with sixteen stone on his back, 
leading the field with the Calcutta hounds ; 
and, returning from my ride to-day, I over- 
took a brick-waggon, drawn by a team of four 
bays, which would not have shamed the car- 
riage of Lord Sefton himself. The driver told 
me that the wheelers, which were skittish and 
much above their work, cost one thousand rix- 



Ch. VI .J 



CAPE LIVING, 533 



dollars *, ox seventy-five pounds each. The 
price of hacks per day is five rix-dollars, or 
seven shillings, and sixpence. Board and 
lodging in a Dutch family, including Cape 
wines, only six dollars a day. Provisions 
and fruit are very cheap, but the inns — there 
are only two— are exorbitant. My landlady 
brought every morning, for twopence, more 
than enough grapes for her four lodgers : the 
honey-fpod and crystal are the best for the 
table. Grapes, horses, women, and whips are 
the objects best meriting admiration at the 
Cape; but for the wine I cannot say so much. 
The common Cape wine is bad Madeira ; the 
Pontac bad Port; but the Frontignac and 
Constantia are rich and luscious sweet-wines. 

March 3rd. In the morning I rode out in 
the direction of the Table Mountain, and was 
surprised to find how much more there is of 
sloping space between its scai'ped and frown- 
ing flanks and the town, than appeared at 

* The rix-dollar is a nominal coin, worth here one shilling; 
and sixpence ; the Spanish dollar is worth three of the above. 



834 SUBURBS OF [€^¥1. 

first sight. I soon found myself in an exteii^ 
sire suburb, chiefly fonned of pretty viUaSi 
well 9heltered and skreened from tbe road^ 
but eommanding extensive jttospeets to the 
seaward. Some of these seclude^ dwellings 
nearest to the mountain reminded me of those 
full-dress cottages under Abraham's Height 
at Matlock — ^but Abraham's Height is but a 
mole-hill compared with the Table. The road 
was thronged with busy washerwoiiien, black 
and white, who had been fat up the hill to 
pound the linen of their employers in the little 
runnels which ooze but scantily from the sides 
of the mountain ; and the Hottentot indiyiduals 
of the party presented, I think, the most awful 
specimens of Womankind that I ever, iti my 
rambles, had the misfortune to encounter. 

In the afternoon we examined the collections 
of stuffed animals by Messrs. Villet and Verrou 
-^the latter of whom is peculiarly happy in 
giving the natural character and expression to 
his birds and beasts. I dined with the 72nd 
Highlanders, who live in very good style ; and 
the officers did not speak so well of Cape 



Ch.VIj[I CAPE TOWNi 385 

Town as a quarter, as I had expected. It 
appears that the Dutch and English do not 
mix much m sbciety~the former certainly 
enjoy their own, if I might judge by the 
' sounds of rerelry by night/ which I heard 
in some of tbe larger houses as I passed 
through the streets. 

March 4/A. Adrertisement in the Capie 
paper. — * To be let — A slave boy of able body 
and good disposition, equal to any common 
household work/ A few days ago, as I was 
informed, a beautiful gitl was put tip and 
sold by aiuction for one thousand rix-doUars ; 
an emigrant to the Swan River being her pur- 
chaser. With this vile Slave system in full 
force, it is not surprising that Cape Town is 
by no means famous for rigidity of morals. 

The next morning one of our party received 
a polite note from Mynheer Colyn of Little 
Constantia, expressing his happiness to see 
us at his wine-farm, on our road to Simon's 
Town to-morrow. This being my last day at 



336 RIDE TO SIMON *S TOWN. £Ch.VL 



Cape Town, I determined to leave it with the 
fairest impressions : I therefore went in the 
afternoon to pay a visit to the much-lauded 
beauty of the Cape, Helen Bestanrig. She 
is the daughter of the hostess of a fashionable 
boarding-house, and is, in truth, surprisingly 
handsome. Though only fifteen, she has 
already, says report, doomed many English 
and Dutch swains to wear the willow. 

March 6th. Having paid our bills, through 
all the perplexing intricacies of rix and Spa- 
nish dollars, schellins and shillings, and 
taken a warm farewell of the good widow and 
her pretty aides-de-camp— or rather * de bou- 
tique' — ^we mounted our hacks to ride to 
Simon's Town. An eight-horse waggon, 
driven in hand, trotted away with our bag- 
gage, and beat us in. 

The dexterity of the Hottentot drivers is 
admirable. It is wonderful to see how well 
they keep eight in hand together, as they 
rattle through the narrow and crowded streets 
at a long trot. 



Ch.VL] COKCTANTIA. 337 

Kihtitering merrily along, we rtachied^ti^ 
halfVajr-hbuse — nine miles and a * half — ^in 
An hoar, and breakfasted there with two gfert- 
tlemen of the ' Honourable Company's Civil 
Service, or Hindoos, as they are here styled. 
Ha\4hg refreshed onrselves and hbrsfes, we 
Ttitide for Constantia, which took us about six 
miles 6ut of our road; but the fame of its 
wines and ' its vignes, and the civility of its 
master, are sufficient inducements to visitors. 
After riding by ill-defined paths across a com- 
mon thickly covered with low heather atid 
jungle, we passed the gate of * Groot Con- 
stantia,' the property of Mynheer Clooty, andj 
descending a rustic lane, like those of Surrey, 
and diving under a dark and beautiful arcade 
of oaks, we came suddenly upon the goodly 
mansion of Mr. Colyn. He received us most 
urbanely, and introduced us to his mother*, 
sister, and wife ; the last of whom bears in 
her comely countenance as much of the pur- 
purea juventas as her own bloom-grapes. 
Mr. Colyn then conducted us to his vine- 
yards, which are situated on gently-undulat- 

VOL. II. z 



838 CONSTANTIA* [OL Yt 

ing gronnd^ exposed to the souths aild pro- 
tected by the mountam from the north and 
west winds. They are also surrounded by a 
leafy skreen of fine tall oaks, bearing the 
likrgest acorns I eter saw. We tasted his 
several kinds of grape, the Muscadell, Fron- 
tignac, red and white Constahtia, &c.,— the 
latter I thought the best flavoured. I was 
surprised at the extreme lowness of the plants, 
few of thein being higher than two feet, though 
some of them had been in the ground one 
hundred years. This peculiarity of the Cape 
vm6 isj however, very advantageous^ for the 
fhiit hangs so near the ground, that the re- 
flection of the sun from the white earth ib 
nearly as powerful as its rays from above* 
For sweet wines the grapes are allowed to 
remain on the tree until they become half 
raisins. It is quite true that the Constantia 
grape will not attain perfection when planted 
even twenty paces on either side of its own 
exclusive vineyard ;— the common Cape grape 
is therefore introduced in preference* A 
pointer ddg that accompanied us devoured 



Ch. VL] UriNB-^STORES. 339 

several large bunches with great apparent 
zest. 

After roaming for half an hour through the 
sunny Vines, we went to see the vats in store 
— a most formidable array !— and tasted the 
Frontignac and the two Constantias; they 
are all expensivei the former especially. Our 
visit concluded with a capital luncheon-^ 
must forget the Indian ' tiffin ' — and in return 
for all his civility^ Mr. Colyn only requested 
us to record our names in a book which he 
keeps for that purpose, and which contains a 
rare variety of autographs^ He afterwardi 
sent a vbst quaiitity of beautiful grapes t6 end 
of oui* party on board the Pallas, who, in 
return, despatched to the fair vigneronne a 
present of fine Dacca muslins. 

At two o'clock we again mounted our horses, 
and having received precise injunctions from 
Mr. C. not to leave the high road^ oti account 
of the dangerous quicksands^ we bade adieu 
to the blooming Constantia, and resumed our 
journey towards the bleak and dreary Simoh'i 
Bay. I know not whether the sipping of so 

z 2 



340 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. [Ch. VL 

many wines under a hot sun had obfuscated 
our vision, and confused our notions of light 
and left, or right and wrong— but certain it is, 
that we started off at a most ' larking' pace ; 
soon lost our way, and suddenly found our- 
selves floundering in a bog. My horse, which 
was leading, refused to advance; but they 
were all soon forced through the quag by 
some Hottentot slaves whom we called to our 
aid. These fellows jumped into the saddles, 
and, laughing and flogging, crammed them 
fearlessly at the black and deep morass; 
whilst we walked across on a narrow arti- 
ficial ridge — ^a performance which fiiUy satis- 
fied us as to the stability of our brains ! 

After riding about three miles farther, 
across a country dangerously undermined 
by a large and beautiful species of mole, we 
gained the turnpike road, and reached Simon's 
Town at 5 p.m. Lord Combermere, accom- 
panied by Sir L. Cole, arrived soon after; the 
whole party dined with the gallant Commo- 
dore ; and late in the evening, we were again 
assembled in the cabin of the Pallas, having 



Ch. VI.] VOYAGE TO ST. HELENA. 341 

passed six very pleasant days at the Gape. 
For myself, I never was more agreeably sur- 
prised in any place: the climate is heavenly; 
and although this is the summer season, none 
of our party felt the worse for having rode * 
thirty miles in the heat of the day. 

March 7th. 1 1 a.m., weighed and made sail, 
beating out 6f False Bay against a light south- 
west breeze. At sunset, Pallas rounded the 
rugged point of Good Hope, and turned her 
head towards St. Helena, seventeen hundred 
miles from the Cape, a distance usually per- 
formed in from ten to fourteen days. 

As we looked back, through the obscurity 
of the night, towards the land that we had 
just quitted, our eyes were arrested by a most 
brilliant and curious spectacle— a long and 
tortuous train of flame, caused by an acci- 
dental conflagration of the jungle, wound up 
the back of the Table Mountain, which being 
invisible through the gloom, the blazing line 
bore all the appearance of a vast fiery serpent, 
rearing itself out of the dark ocean. 



S4B ST. HELENA. [Cb. VI. 

. On the third day we overtook, and admi- 
Hifltered the go-by to the Minerva, which had 
Fdghed and made sail from Table Bay about 
the same time that Pallas quitted Simon's 
Bay. 

March 20th. At mid-day, St. Helena was 
visible from the deck, distant forty-two miles, 
and we were drawing near to it with a fine 
south-east breeze, at the rate of eight knots 
an hour. When I first caught sight of it, it 
appeared like a single filmy cloud lingering 
en the edge of the horizon, whose wide ex^ 
panse was clear of vapours, yet hazy from 
excessive heat. In a few hours, however, it 
assmned a darker and more solid form, and 
ere sunset we were near enough to scan its 
nigged features. 

Nothing can be more repulsive than the ap^ 
pearance of St. Helena from the sea : many 
hundred miles from any continent, it looks as 
though it had been divorced from the mass of 
the habitable world. It starts abruptly out of 
the deep, in a confiised heap of bare and 



cb.vLi James's bay. 343 

ci'^ggy rockSi of which the aoutliem side is, 
perhaps, the most savage and desolate part. 

It is impossible for the most apathetic to apt 
proach the prison and tomb of the most wonr 
derful man Europe ever produced, and the 
most powerful enemy England ever had, withf 
out feelings of the highest interest. As I 
gazed on the black and sea- worn flanks of this 
bastile of Nature, I imagined to myself the 
chilly horror with which the Imperial captive 
must have contemplated, from the deck of the 
Northumberland, his destined abode. Prer 
cipitously scarped all round, it looks as though 
it had been formed expressly to be the iron 
cage of some gigantic Bajazet. 

As we sailed round the bluff, round-headed 
point, called from its structure ^ the JBarri,' 
we gradually neared the shore ; and just as 
the shades of evening were closing ground 
us, we ran close under a battery, situated on 
a lofty salient angle of rock, and styled with 
true English vulgarity and ineptitude of no- 
menclature, * Buttermilk Point.* 

A hoarse voice from the battery, hailed ^us 



344 ST. HELENA. fCSkVL 

as we passed, demanded the ship's name, and 
gave the necessary permission to anchor in 
James's Bay after sunset. From this point 
we could distinctly see the forest of masts in 
the harbour, and the lights in James's Town 
and in the surrounding batteries ; and, strongly 
relieved against the yet ruddy evening sky, 
we descried two large ships quitting the roads. 
At half-past seven, Pallas shortened sail, 
and dropped anchor about half a mile from 
shore, in twenty fathoms. Within a few 
hundred yards of us lay the Syb^le frigate, 
carrying the broad pennant of Commodore 
CoUyer. This ship was in quarantine, hav- 
ing just returned from that very efficient drain 
on England's excessive population, Fernando 
Po ; where the work of saving black men, 
at the price of killing whites, is going on as 
merrily as ever. 

March 2ilst. Rose early to have a view of 
James's Town and Bay. The former is snugly 
niched in a narrow ravine between two tower- 
ing cliflfs, and consists of one long street 



Gb. VL] JAMES TOWN. 345 

running up towards the centre of the island. 
Strong batteries, with a ditch and drawbridge, 
are drawn across the defile from cliff to cliflf ; 
and the summits and flanks of the rocks, on 
either hand, are strengthened with numerous 
posts bristling with heavy guns. Ladder Hill, 
eight hundred feet high, on the right of the 
town, is the most considerable battery ; and 
the Governor has lately improved its com- 
munication with the arsenal by means of 
a direct flight of steps from the summit to 
the base, flanked by two rail-roads, up which 
any quantity of stores or ammunition may be 
raised in a few minutes by a windlass. 

At 9 A.M. Lord Combermere and his party 
landed. The Governor, Brigadier-General 
Dallas, received him on the pier, and wo were 
all (luickly furnished with horses to carry us 
to Plantation House, distant three miles and a 
half from James Town. A salute rattled from 
the batteries ; the little garrison drawn up in 
line presented arms ; an excellent band pealed 
forth the national anthem, and I could hardly 
believe that we were on a little barren rock in 



346 ST. HELENA. [CIlVI. 

the midst of the Atlantic, and so far removed 
from the civilized parts of the world. 

On clearing the town, we climbed by a 
steepy zigzag, but vdde and safe road^ up te 
the post of Ladder Hill, the Governor's car- 
riage and four following us. From the bat*- 
tery at this point a heavy shot, taking effect 
on a ship in the bay, would make its entry 
through the upper deck, and its exit through 
the bottom of the vessel. Leaving Ladder 
Hill, we passed the artillery barracks, and 
soon after came upon a most sterile slope, 
cut up into ravines, and thinly inoculated 
with the cactus plant. This desert, I was 
surprised to hear, is the preserve— the par- 
tridges breeding there in preference to the 
most woody parts of the island. Pheasants 
and rabbits are also found there. 

Passing upwards over the crest of the hill, 
we had a pleasant canter through about a 
quarter of a mile of fir plantation, and came 
suddenly upon Plantation House, the Gover- 
nor's residence. Here Nature is decked out 
in her bgUdo^y attire ; the manision, a good 



Ob.VI.1 PLANTATION HOUSE. 347 

square English-Blocking building, is delight-* 
fully situated in the gorge of a wido ravine, 
surrounded on three sides by woods, and with 
a verdant lawn in front Beyond this, tho 
eye ranges uninterruptedly down to the sea. 
From the drawing-room windows, a ship, a 
mile out at sea^ is seen through the wire 
fence at the end of the lawn. Pleasant 
shady walks are cut through the woody 
arms of the ravine which inclose the view 
on either side. Here the oak and bamboo, 
fir and plantain, natives of such widely 
distant climes, mingle branches ; and the 
myrtle aspires to the dignity of a timber tree# 
Geranium is a weed. Peaches and grapes, 
the fig and the loquot, the pear, potato, and 
brinj/ll, all flourish together in the gardens. 
The house is roomy and cheerful, and a neat 
chapel is situated three hundred yards farther 
up the hill, in the rear. From the unpro- 
mising appearance of the exterior of the isle, 
no visiter would be led to expect so pretty a 
domain, and so comfortable a residence as 
Plantation presents. The Governor's family 



348 ST. HELENA. IOlYL 

consists of his lady and three fair daughteis 
— ^the Mirandas of this sainted isle : with a 
military secretary, and an aide-de-camp ; both 
island-bom, or ^ Yam-stocks/ as the natiyes 
are technically styled. 

We were received most kindly by the fa- 
mily, and hospitably and pleasantly enter- 
tained during three days. The number of 
visiters of every nation, whether in the pur- 
suit of business or of pleasure, who cross the 
threshold of the Governor's ever-^pen door 
is immense. Nine vessels were telegraphed 
this morning early, and four more soon after- 
wards. 

Hallowed as this isle is in their eyes, as 
being the resting place of the remains of 
their demi-god, the French are naturally the 
most numerous visiters. One of this nation, 
a very clever fellow, sat next to me at dinner 
to-day, and I had much interesting converse 
with him regarding Napoleon. He said he 
had come from the Mauritius expressly to 
make a ' pelerinage au tombeau du plus 
grand des hommes,' and moralized on the 



Ch.YI.] RIDE ROUND THE ISLAND. 349 

dech6ance of human greatness, with tears in 
his eyes. 

March 22nd. After breakfast, a fine shower 
of rain having cleared the atmosphere, a party 
of ten started on an equestrian ramble round 
the island. Passing through the gateway at 
the back of Government House, we came di- 
rectly upon a series of verdant and beautiful 
vallies, which crossing each other in every 
direction, occupy the concave centre of the 
isle, and seem to emanate from the great 
mountain of Diana's Peak. 

The roads are very good, though the rider 
is too constantly interrupted by the multitudes 
of gates, (not turnpikes^ for the roads are 
kept up by taxes on horses, dogs, guns, &c.) 
which, when they occur in a narrow path, with 
a fathomless precipice on one or both hands, 
are troublesome obstructions. In our case 
they were rendered still worse by the number 
and insubordinate conduct of our horses. 

We soon reached the top of a steep ridge, 
from whence we enjoyed a most beautiful 



350 ST. HELENA. [OlVL 

prospect of what may be called the Bouthem 
division of the island. For a mile in onr 
front lay a foreground of the richest green — 
forests of firs, knolls covered with gors^ in 
full blossom, with here and there cottages or 
more considerable houses peeping from the 
midst of groves, or perched on the very brow 
of the abrupt but verdant hills. Among these, 
the mansion of Sir William Doveton is the most 
prominent, and most picturesque in sitiiatioti. 
The owner is an old resident of the island^ 
and was knighted by the king^ as the bearer 
of some loyal address from the islanders. He 
is a very fine old man, in the full possession 
of all his faculties at the age of seventy- 
eighty and is in himself an eloquent proof of 
the goodness of that climate which was so 
much vituperated by Napoleon and his fol- 
lowers. On this point the dissatisfaction of 
the great prisoner seems decidedly unfounded 
*— the thermometer ranges at a mean between 
58° and 78^, seldom higher or lower — the 
' Yam-stocks ' are usually stout and florid in 
appearance ; and certainly, during this day, 



ch.vL] Diana's PEAK. 351 

(and We wejre out from 10 till 6 o'clock) it 
was impossible to Say that it was either dis- 
agi*eeably hot or cold. The very few deaths 
ill the Emperor's family, during the five years 
of his residence, afford fair presumption of 
the healthiness of the climate : for of fifty 
persons, I believe only one died, and he was 
a consumptive subject. But to resume our 
sketch.— 

Immediately beyond the above-described 
vivid and luxuriant foreground, the eye of 
the spectator loses itself amongst a chaos of 
parched, cragged, and precipitous ravines, 
which, unadorned by a single blade of vege- 
tation, run down towards Sandy Bay, one of 
the very few accessible points of the isld. 
The bare and forked peaks of the southern 
extremity of the island close the landscape ; 
but beyond them, on a clear day, twenty 
leagues of the blue ocean are visible. 

Continuing our ride, we soon reached 
Dianas Peak, the loftiest pinnacle of St. 
Helena, about two thousand seven hundl*ed 
feet above the sea, or co-equal with the Ghc- 



352 ST. HELENA. [CluVL 

yiot mountains in Scotland. It is thickly 
clothed with shmbs up to the extremest sum- 
mit, and the road is hedged in with the 
cabbage-tree, the gum-tree, and the most 
luxuriant blackberries. This path, which is 
certainly very narrow, was cut expressly for, 
and dedicated exclusively to Buonaparte; 
and he, always ready with objections, com- 
plained that it was formed for the express 
purpose of breaking his neck. Each lofty 
point has its signal-post ; so that the prison- 
er's every movement was overlooked, a mea- 
sure which must have been galling enough, 
but no less necessary. Even now, so vigilant 
are the watchmen, that they seldom fail to 
discover vessels at twenty leagues' distance. 
They have orders to fire a warning-gun, if 
three ships are seen approaching, as if in 
company. Captain D. told me that one of 
these look-out posts telescoped and tele- 
graphed him to Government House as poach- 
ing in the preserve, when he thought himself 
quite secure from observation. 
We soon came in sight of the level plateau 



Ch. VI.] LONGWOOD* 353 

of the Longwood estate, the residence of 
the late emperor, and six miles from Planta- 
tion House. Here the country gradually 
assumes a more desolate and a wilder look ; 
and the English visitor arrives at the unfor- 
tunate and unwelcome conclusion, that the 
best part of the island was not given to the 
illustrious captive. One cannot avoid agree- 
ing with Sir W. Scott, that Plantation House 
should have been accorded to him, in spite 
of the deterring reasons of its vicinity to the 
sea, and its sequestered situation. Long- 
wood, however, has better roads, more space 
for riding or driving, and in summer must 
have been much cooler than the less shel- 
tered parts of the isle. 

As we turned through the lodges the old 
house appeared at the end of an avenue of 
scrubby and weather-worn trees It bears 
the exterior of a respectable farm-house, but 
is now fast running to decay. On entering 
a dirty court-yard, and quitting our horses, 
we were shown by some idlers into a square 
building, which once contained the bed-room j 

Vol. II. 2 A 



{ 



964 9T. nwhMUfA. i€ai.vL 

sittmg-roomi and bath of the Empereur des 
Francois, The partitions and floorings are 
now thrown down, and torn up, and the 
apartments occupied for six years by the hero 
before whom Ungs, emperorSi and popes had 
quailedi are now t^nant^d by cart-horses ( 

Passing on with a groan, I entered a small 
chamber, with two windows looking towards 
the north. Between these windows are the 
marks of a fiiced sofa: on that couch Na^ 
poleon died. The apartment is now occupied 
by a threshing-machine ; ^ No b^d emblem 
of its former tenant ) ' said 9. sacrilegious wag* 
Hence we were conducted ouwards to a large 
room, which formerly contained a billiard- 
table, and whose front looks out upon a little 
latticed yeranda, where the imperial peripa- 
tetic — I cannot style him philosophers- 
enjoyed the luxury of six paces to and fro,r— 
his favourite promenade. The white-washpd 
walls axe scored with names of every nation ; 
and the paper of the ceiling has been torn off 
in strips, as holy relics. Many couplets, 
chie^y French, extolling and lamenting thQ 



Gh.Vf.J LONGWOOD. 36A 

■ 

departed hero, adorn or disfigure (according 
to their qualities) the plaster walls. The 
only lines that I can recall to mind — few are 
worth it — are the following, written over the 
door, and signed * * * * * * *, Officier de la 
Garde Imp^riale/ 

' Du grand Ni^pol^on la nom toi^oura oit^ 
Ira de bouche en bouche ft la post^rit^ I ' 

The writer doubtless possessed more spirit as 

a sabreur, than as a poet. 
The emperor's once well-kept garden, 

* And ttiU where i^iany a garden-flower grows wild/ 

is now overgrown and choked with weeds. At 
the end of a walk stiU exists a small mounds 
on which it is said the hero of Lodi, Marengo, 
and Austerlit^, amused himself by erecting a 
mock battery. The little chunamed tank, in 
which he fed some freshrwater fish, is quite 
dried up ; and the mud wall, through a hole 
in which he reconnoitred passers-by, is, like 
the great owner, returned to earth I 

It is difficult now to judge of what Long^ 
wood was when in repair; but I cannot think 
that it could) in its best days, have been 

2 A2 



356 ST. HELENA. [CluVI. 

worthy of the illustrious occupant, even in his 
worst. A little lower down the hill, and much 
better situated than the old house, stands 
the new one, which was not finished when 
Napoleon died. 

The erection of this commodious and hand- 
some building shows a willingness to accom- 
modate Bonaparte, which is highly creditable 
to our government, and affords a good proof 
of the same to his compatriots. It is built 
according to his expressed wish, * without 
dark passages,' and with a fine suite of rooms 
leading into each other. He, however, pre- 
ferred the old incommodious house, with its 
concomitant grievance, to the new one, which 
would have left him little to complain of. No 
one can remember, without regret, the un- 
happy subjects of dispute, which embittered 
the communion between the distinguished 
exile and his governors, and the undignified 
and unmanly schemes which he concocted for 
the annoyance of his unlucky keeper. There 
was doubtless blame on both sides. 

As we English never do anything without 



Ch.VI.] napoleon's TOMB. 357 

eating, our party lunched in the spacious 
veranda of new Longwood House, and then 
repaired to the St. Helena museum, distant a 
quarter of a mile: it is a small collection, but 
valuable to science. 

Having passed two hours on the spot where 
Napoleon lived and died, we rode onwards to 
the vale which contains his bones : it is about 
half a mile from Longwood, and within a few 

■ 

hundred yards of the cottage of Madame Ber- 
trand, to whom he indicated the spot in which 
he desired to rest, should the English not 
allow his remains to lie on the banks of the 
Seine. Soon after leaving Bertrand's house, 
we caught sight of the tomb, at the bottom 
of the ravine called Slane's valley, and, de- 
scending a zig-zag path, we quickly reached 
the spot. About half an acre round the grave 
is railed in. At the gate we were received by 
an old corporal of the St. Helena corps, who 
has the care of the place. The tomb itself 
consists of a square stone, about ten feet by 
seven, surrounded with a plain iron-railing. 
Four or five weeping-willows, their stems 



S68 ST. HfiLEKA. [CkVI. 



towards the graye, hang their pensile 
branches over it 

Who conld contemplate without interest 
the little spot of earth which covers all that 
remains of mortal of the man who made £u^ 
rope tremble I who carried his rictorious aims 
from the Nile to the Elbe^ from Moscow to 
the Pillars of Hercules ; who bore his eagles 
triumphantly through Vienna^ Rome^ Berlin^ 
Madrid I Beneath our feet lay he^ who ^ du 
monde entre ses mains a tu les destinies '-^ 

* The desolator desolate, the victor overthrown !' 

*They that see thee,' saith the inspired 
prophet, * they that see thee shall narrowly 
look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, I& 
this the man that made the earth to tremble, 
and did shake kingdoms ; that made the 
world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities 
thereof; that opened not the house of his pri- 
soners ? All the kings of the nations, even all 
of them, lie in glory, every one in his own 
house. Thou shalt not be joined with them 
in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy 



Gh.VI«] napoleon's TOMB. 369 

land, and slain thy people ; the seed of evil-* 
doers shall never be renowned *.' 

The willows are decaying fast^ and one of 
them rests upon the sharp spears of the rail* 
ing» which are buried in its trunk-^as though 
it were committing suicide for very grief I 
The foliage of the rest is thinned and dis- 
figured by the frequent and almost excusable 
depredations of visiters. Fresh cuttings have» 
however, been planted by the Governor, who 
intends, moreover, to set cypresses round the 
outer fence. Madame Bertrand's immortelles 
have proved, alas I mortal. 

The fine, tall, old corporal, who came out 
from England with the ex-emperor, was full 
of his praises : * I saw the General often,' 
said the old fellow ; * he had an eye in his 
head like an eagle ! ' He described the visit 
of the French pilgrims to this spot — their 
Kibla — as most affecting. Some are extrava- 
gant beyond measure in their grief, falling on 
their faces round the railing (which they never 
enter, as foreigners do), praying, weeping, 

* Isaiah xiv. 16,17,18,20. 



360 ST. HELENA. [CI1.VI, 

and even tearing their hair. Whilst we were 
there, my friend of yesterday came towards 
the spot ; but when he saw our large, and, I 
fear me, rather unimpressed party, he turned 
upwards, and disappeared. After inscribing 
our names in a book — into which also appro- 
priate poetry, as well as ribald nonsense finds 
its way — ^we drank to Napoleon's immortal 
memory in his own favourite spring, and 
mounting our steeds, spurred towards Plan- 
tation House. 

On the road, we passed within view of ' the 
Briars,' where the chief resided during the 
building of Longwood ; and where he, 

* Whose game was kingdoms, and whose stakes were thrones ! 
His table earth, his dice were human bones I ' 

played at whist with the owner, Mr. Bal- 
combe, for sugar -plums ! 

March 23rc?. St. Helena was discovered by 
the Portuguese in 1502, and by them soon 
deserted. It was taken possession of by the 
East India Company in 1651, and granted to 
them by charter of Charles II. in 1661. In 



Ch.VI.] STATISTIC ACCOUNT, 361 

1672 it was taken by the Dutch, and was 
recovered by the English the following year. 

St. Helena is highly important to the Com- 
pany as an entrep6t for their stores, &c., and 
in the hands of an enemy would be a thorn in 
the side of their commerce. In other respects 
it is far from profitable ; the expenses amount- 
ing to nearly eighty thousand pounds a year, 
whilst the revenue is scarcely five thousand 
pounds. 

A governor and two members of council, 
invested with both judicial and executive 
power, form the government of the isle. The 
inhabitants, including the garrison, are five 
thousand ; the infantry and artillery amount 
to eight hundred men ; and seven hundred 
volunteers can be raised at a moment's warn- 
ing. The island batteries mount about two 
hundred heavy guns ; and there are besides 
some sixteen moveable pieces. 

St. Helena is twenty-three miles in circum- 
ference. This miniature microcosm boasts of 
numerous public institutions ; amongst others, 
Horticultural and Agricultural Societies, a 



363 QUIT Bt. nUhUVA. [dt Vl 

Widow's Fund, and a Free-dchool| educating 
five hundred children. 

After an early dinner at Plantation House, 
our party took leave of the Qoremor and his 
fair daughters^^who seem to rejoice in their 
truly halcyon home--''«nd rode down to the 
town. The St. Helena regiment, dressed like 
the Guards, was drawn up, and presented 
arms ; and as we stepped into the Grorernor's 
barge, the people on the wharf and on the 
batteries gave us three cheers. By the time 
we reached the Pallas it was quite dark« At 
that moment the batteries opened a salute^ a 
rocket going up with erery gun, and blue 
lights burning along the rocks: Pallas re- 
turned the salute, and blue lights were burnt 
at all her yard«anns. 

Nine o'clock, up anchor, made all sail. 

Our pertinacious synonyme, the Minenra, 
who left the Cape the same day as the Pallas, 
arrived at St. Helena only six hours after her, 
and quitted James's Bay a few hours before 
her. 

Two days' sailing again brought us up with 



Cli.Vt.] PAhhAB At 8EA. S6.1 

her, and we passed her at speaking distance. 
As we glided briskly past her, we exchanged 
greetings with the passengers on her poop, 
and her crew manned the rigging, and gave 
us three chi^ers^ their band striking up * Rule 
Britannia ' — a compliment returned with in^ 
terest by Captain Fitz-Clarence. I felt proud 
of the Pallas, as her gallant ship's company, 
dressed in their neat summer uniform of white 
shirts and trowsers and straw hats, sprung 
simultaneously from the deck, spread them- 
selves nimbly over the shrouds of the three 
masts, suddenly faced outwards, doffed hats, 
and poured forth a shout that made the hea« 
vens echo again. 

March 27th. At mid-day^ descried the Isle 
of Ascension, thirty-five miles north ; and at 
7 P.M. anchored in seven fathoms, in a small 
bay, off the Settlement. Our passage wai 
very good^ heing rather under four days. 
The island is even more forbidding in its ex- 
ternal appearance than the one we have just 
quitted. For a concise and apt definition of 



364 ISLE OP ASCENSION. [Cli.yL 

the two isles, St. Helena is a Bocit— Ascension 
a Cinder. . Approaching the south end, it 
bears the appearance of a succession of brick- 
kilns and lime-kilns, according to their hues, 
but of Brobdignagian proportions — these ele- 
vations being in fact extinct yolcanoes. In 
the centre of the isle is the lofty * Green 
Mountain,' which — ^lucus a non lucendo — but 
little deserves its epithet. Near its cloud- 
capped sununit, we readily distinguished a 
line of white buildings, from which the flash 
and smoke of a signal gun were visible as we 
neared the shore. The side of Ascension, on 
which the settlement is situated, is consider- 
ably lower than the southern extremity of the 
isle ; and as we ran along it, we saw several 
turtle bays, which are merely small inlets of 
sandy beach between the rocks. In these 
spots the turtles lay their eggs, which are 
hatched by the sun, three times a year, each 
animal having a progeny of some two hundred. 
The number of their enemies, however, pre- 
vents the undue increase of their population : 
as the new-hatched turtlets crawl to the sea, 



Ch.VI.] GEORGETOWN. 365 

their migration is intercepted by the clouds 
of sea birds, which infest the island ; and of 
those who are fortunate enough to reach the 
water, many are cut off in their prime by 
the conger-eel and other marine foes. At a 
more advanced period of their eventful exist- 
ence, when their bulk protects them against 
other carnivorous animals, the Corporation 
of London are said to be no insignificant 
exterminators of the breed. 

March 28<A. Landed early. On the little 
rocky pier we were received by the second in 
command ; the Governor, Captain Bate, R.M., 
having received some distressing news by the 
Pallas. The settlement — though it only con- 
sists of a few houses and huts for the accom- 
modation of the garrison, one hundred and 
forty marines — is dignified with the loyal 
title of George Town. Two captains and 
two subalterns of Marines, with two surgeons 
and a victualler, form the aristocracy of 
Ascension. The Governor draws from the 
Treasury of England — Mr. Hume! does 



366 ASCEVilOH • ICk. VL 

your lynx-eyed economy doze? — a revenue 
amounting to four shillings per diem ! The 
second in command receives two sbiUings 
and sixpence, and the subalterns one shilling 
each, extra I 

The only ' lion ' of the town u tha turtle 
crawl, or kraal, a w&lled-in creek, in which 
the tide ebbs and flowSt and wh^e hundreds 
of these ' delicate mcmsters ' are imprisoned. 
I saw one there, which waci said to weigh 
eight hundred and thirty pounds. One of 
nine hundred pounds was sent to the l^g 
last year, — (N, B. A fine bullock was killed 
at the Cape, for the use of the ship's com- 
pany, which only weighed si:;: hundred 
pounds.) — ^The West Indian turtle, I am told, 
rarely exceed two hundred weight. The 
turtle of Ascension, the only produce of the 
island, constitute its sole revenue; but the 
inhabitants are permittied to use as much as 
they can consume. It is considered very 
wholesome food. One hundred and fifty 
turtles have been turned in a night here. 

All the horses (seven in nuniber) of the 



Cb,VI.] GREEN MOUNTAIN. 367 

iele being pressed into our service, we rode 
up to the station on Green Mountain, uix 
miles from George Town, where the little 
cultivation that this barren spot is suscep- 
tible of, is carried on. The road, which is 
safe and formed with some art, leads over a 
series of hills and valleys of volcanic ashes, 
whose loose, crisp surface is guiltless of a 
single blade of vegetation. Ab we approached 
the station in our toilsome ascent, we how- 
ever met with scanty sprinklings of the Indian 
gooseberry, wild tomata, and coarse grass, 

The little mountain-hamlet, consisting of 
some half-dozei) houses and cabins, small 
but comfortable, is seated, likp the eyrie of 
an eagle, on a sunny shelf, three or four 
hundred feet below the summit of the hill, 
and forms the residence of two officers and a 
few soldiers, whose florid countenances testify 
the salubrity of this exalted climate. The 
gentlemen gave us a capital breakfast of 
beef-steaks and veal-cutlets — feally not mis- 
named^ — both made of turtle : and afterwards 
acted as our guides iu {^ ramble of six miles 



368 ASCENSION. [Ciu VI. 

round the Green Mountain. The road, which 
is as yet but half formed, and in some points 
practised in the obstructing rock, is dan- 
gerous, but not otherwise interesting; unless it 
be so to see the struggles these good people 
are making against nature to cultivate a few 
firuits and vegetables. 

About eight hundred or one thousand acres 
of land — ^if the meagre deposit of half mould 
half cinder may be so called — are capable of 
arability ; at least so say the sanguine settlers^ 
who are naturally anxious to make the best 
of their colony. 

English, and sweet potatoes, Indian corn, 
and a few pimipkins and plantains are all 
that their incipient farm has hitherto pro- 
duced. The Palma Christi, or castor-oil 
plant, whose fine vine-like leaf and grateful 
shade are more pleasing than its associations, 
is the only vegetable production that affects 
the tree. Nasturtium grows, as wild and as 
thick as heather, in the ravines. 

There are wild goats and guinea-fowls in 
abundance on the mountain* Thrjee brace of 



Ch.VI.l GREEN MOUNTAIN. 369 

the latter were turned out three or four years 
ago : last year the settlers killed nearly two 
thousand head of them ; and this day, in our 
walk, I did not see fewer than two hundred 
brace. They got up in coveys, and flew as 
strong as pheasants. We had no guns with 
us, or might have had fine sport. Wild 
Cattle also formerly inhabited the mountain^ 
but they were exterminated on account of 
their fierceness. 

From the Station on Green Mountain the 
lower region of the island has, literally speak- 
ing, a most infernal appearance — not fewer 
than fifty craters of exhausted volcanos having 
been counted. The lava is from the brightest 
red to the deepest black in colour; and the 
latter, of which I procured a good specimen, 
is susceptible of a high polish. Water is the 
scarcest commodity, niggard Nature having 
only vouchsafed two dribbling ' springs to 
Ascension : magnificent tanks, as reservoirs 
for the rain-water, are, however, in progress^ 
one of which is calculated to contain about 
five hundred and fifty tuns. 

Vol. II. 2 B 



d7(y . ASCEttSICM. COuVt 

« 

At 3 P.M. we reached the ship, well te^iigued^ 
and eager to bid adieu to this desolate shore^ 
It would, I think, haye gone ikr towai^ 
reconoiling Napoleon to hia island piispA had 
they given him a glimpse of Ascenadon before 
they carried him to St« Helena* Royal indeed 
must be the revenue that woiild tempt me to 
become ' monarch of all I survey/ in this 
^horrible placet' Should, however, in the 
march of these king-making and king-mar^ 
rifig times, the crown of Ascensioii chance to 
be forced on my acceptance, I shall rob Shah 
Jehan of his inflated motto, apd* varying only 
one word of his inscription, adapt it tq ny 
haU of audience—^* If there be a hf-r*ll upon 
earth, it is this ! it is this I ' * 

At 7 B.^.9 having stowed ourselves and 
nineteen large turtle on board, we weighed 
anchor, and made all sail from Ascension^ 
leaving in the bay the ten-gun-brig, Chanti^ 



* This well-known hiscription'^-ftdverted to by Moore, m bis 
liOUa Rookh — still remains in the Dewdnee KhSs at Dehli. 
* If there be a Paradise upon earth. 
It is this ! it is this | ' 



Cln VL] PALLAS AT SEA. 371 

cleer, >vhoso commander, Captain Forster*, 
is at present employed upon the island in a 
course of experiments to ascertain, by the 
pendulum, the sphericity of the globe at 
different points upon its surfhce, 

April Ut. Pallas re-crossed the Line* On 
the 4th the north-east Trade*wind declared 
for us, and continued to lend us efficient aid 
until the 16th. With a pretty equal alterna-* 
tion of calms and stiff breezes, We reached 
the Azores, or Western Isles, on the 21st, 
and ran swiftly through the group. At 8 a. m. 
we passed Pico, a fine island, highly culti- 
vated, thirty miles in length. Its main fea- 
ture is the Peak mountain, whence its name. 
It is seven thousand feet high, its summit 
capped with snow. Pico produces yearly 
twenty thousand pipes of wine^ a fair portion 
of which doubtless finds its way to England 
as Madeira. 

We soon after passed in our rapid course 

♦ The newspapers of September, 1831, announced the untimely 
death of this talented and enterprising officer. 

2B2 



^72 THE AZ(»»8>. : iJCh^VjI. 

the Isles of St. George and QtociftULyl^^ /pr- 
mef in high culture, the l^tterrAmall aufi 
nigged. At mid-day we came i^ sight of itbe 
much-talked-of Island of Ter^iraj;i:i^ is ex- 
ceedingly highi and as pretty, ^s.luKUfuapt 
woods, many-tinted cultivation, and boM cliiO^ 
can make it. The capital tow^^ Angra^^Hsitua- 
ted behind a bluff promontory of rock greatly 
capable of fortification — appears tplerablycK- 
tensive; and numbers of snow^^ite villages 
and lone houses are dotted over the face of 
the slope. The anchorage of this isle, as well 
as of the rest of the Azores, is very unsafe. 

' April 26th. For the last week we have been 
favoured by fresh and prosperous gales. The 
little Pallas, sympathizing with our eagerness 
to reach home, * keeps pace with our expec- 
tancy, and flies.' In eight days she has nm 
over a distance of seventeen hundred and 
thirty-two miles ! 

By mid-day on the 27th, we had struck off 
one hundred and eighty-five miles from the 



iOlu'Vl] ENOI^IBH CHANNEL. OTiB 

yet remaining small ^cote ; and had the breeze 
proved ' conBtAht, five hours more would have 
sufficed' to place us out of danger from its 
further fickleness. At twelve o'clock, Eddy- 
stone lighthouse and Mount Edgecombe were 
only distaint from us ten miles, when the winxi, 
deserting eur cause, -ratted^ and blew directly 
in our teeth. Plymouth lay most invitingly 
to leeward ; we could have been there in an 
hour ; but Portsmouth is our destination, and 
to Portsmouth must we go. At sunset Pallas 
exchanged numbers with a line-of-battle ship 
in Plymouth Sound. 

26tL Beating up the Channel. In the 
night weathered Portland Bill. 

%9th. Beating up Channel. — Oh, hope 
deferred, how dost thou clog the hours t At 
10 A.M. we had a fine view of Lulworth castle 
(Mr, Weld's), since better known as the 
retreat of the ex-King of France ; and at 
twelve o'clock we caught the first glimpse of 
the Isle of Wight. 



S74 BPITH£AI}« fciL VL 

aotk AprU, 1830. About two belld iaat the 
morning watch (five o'clock) I Was awakened 
from a deep dream, in which * England, Home, 
and Beauty ' formed the leading features, by 
the ear-piercing pipe of the boatswain^ closely 
followed up by his hoarse roar of ' All hands, 
bring ship to an anchor;' a call which was 
speedily re-echoed by the ready mates as they 
tripped down the hatchways from the main* 
deck, to hurry up the (on this occasion) doubly 
willing crew, whose hearts, doubtless, yearned 
towards that * point,' with which so many 
of their tenderest recollections were asso- 
ciated. 

In the prosecution of this nautical reveilli^, 
the following delicate yet highly characterise 
tic expressions came quaintly enough upon a 
landsman's ear: * heave out there;' * rouse 
atid bit ;' * shew a leg, and save the tide,* &c. 

In a few minutes the deck was alive with 
the assembled people; and, the hammocks 
being stowed, they flew to their appointed 
stations. As we approached the well-known 
anchorage, a dead silence reigned around. 



cikvi.j Dallas at anchor. ^75 

and all eyes geemed riveted en the Captain, 
who, mounted on a gun, now gave, in a dlear 
voice, the word of command to * shorten sail.' 
The pipes of the boatswain and his mates 
pealed out a shrill response, which was dis* 
tinctly heard above the creaking of blocks 
and tackles, and the stamp pf the seamen as 
they ^ run up' the various gear. In un in- 
stant the sails, so lately asleep and swelling 
before the gentle breeze, were clewed up and 
gathered to the yards by the topmen ready sta- 
tioned aloft : another moment, and the order 
to ' stand clear the cable ' was given ; and ere 
the warning could well be obeyed, the plunge 
of the ^ best bower,' and the harsh grating 
of the chain announced the completion of 
our voyage. 

England welcomed her long-absent sons 
with her brightest smiles. The sea was as 
smooth and unruffled as a lake ; the beautiful 
Isle of Wight was decked out in all the ten- 
der verdure of young Spring ; and the sky 
appeared almost Indian in its freedom from 
clouds, and its intensity of blue. At twelve 



376 ENGLAND. [OlVI. 

o'clock I sprung on to the shore of my father- 
land, after an absence of nearly five years. 

In the words of some bard, whose name I 
remember not, I might say — 

* I*v« waiider*d where the scorching mn 
Blights the fair flower it smiles upon ;— 
I*ve seen the hunted elephant 
Deep in the trampled jungle pant ; — 
Tve seen the lonely vulture fly 
With blood-stain*d beak, but hungry eye ; 
Have mark*d the desert serpents coiI» 
The lion*8 track imprint the soil ; — 
I*ve seen the lingering daylight set 
0*er mosque and arrowy minaret ; 
Have marked its brighter dawning deck 
Some column*d templets marble wreck ; 
Have felt its noontide radiance shine 
Through the Pagoda*s sandal shrine,* &c. 

All this, and much more, have I seen since 
my departure from England ; but I doubt if 
any transmarine spectacle gave me half so 
much pleasure as did the sight of the jolly, 
red, weather-beaten face of the first bumboat- 
woman who came alongside our gallant frigate 
at Spithead ! 

THE END. 



Printed by W. Clowes, SUmford'Street 



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